Irvin Khoza and Danny Jordaan decried Chirac's intervention as "unprecedented" in World Cup history and said they had asked South African President Thabo Mbeki to protest to his French counterpart.

"It's probably a world first when the head of state of a country, who is not even on the continent, comes out to support another country's bid," Jordaan, chief executive of South Africa's bid committee, told editors in Johannesburg.

"We have asked Thabo Mbeki to raise this with President Chirac."

Ending a visit to Morocco on October 11, Chirac told a news conference: "I shall do everything in my power so that France helps Morocco to organise the next World Cup."

South Africans are still sore about being pipped by Germany for the right to stage the 2006 finals and the government has made it a national priority to win for 2010, enlisting the support of former President Nelson Mandela.

It is Africa's turn to host the tournament and South Africa's bid is seen as favourite by many commentators. Apart from Morocco, other candidates are Egypt, Libya and Tunisia.
The world soccer body must announce the winner by next May.

FIFA INSPECTORS

Jordaan and Khoza, the chairman of the bid committee, are anxiously preparing for next Thursday's arrival of FIFA inspectors who will spend a week touring venue cities and scrutinising facilities.

Khoza said South Africa had superior stadia, transport networks and telecommunications to any other African bidder and did not need to resort to "dirty tricks" to win.

South Africa has one of the world's highest rates of violent crime but Khoza said there had been no serious security problems at any of the major events the country has hosted since it emerged from international isolation in 1994.

Jordaan said Chirac's involvement underlined the influence of international politics in awarding world cups.

France was eyeing the major contracts in the offing if Morocco's bid succeeds, he said.

"France is looking for the construction contracts, the loans etc. So the fact that Morocco does not have the infrastructure is actually a business opportunity," Jordaan said.

It was unclear when Mbeki and Chirac would meet but Jordaan said the South African president should point out that Paris needs votes in its battle with other major cities to host the 2012 Summer Olympics.

"Should we ask the African Union to endorse London? He (Chirac) has set a new trend in international bidding."