The United States will host the women's World Cup later this year.

　　FIFA, the world soccer's governing body, said on Monday it selected the US bid over one from Sweden, three weeks after moving the tournament from China because of SARS.

　　China will hold the 2007 World Cup. The US hosted the highly successful event in 1999.

　　The decision by FIFA's eight-member emergency committee from its Zurich headquarters was widely expected because the United States was considered best equipped to handle the 16-team tournament on such short notice.

　　US Soccer Federation president Bob Contiguglia said he was notified by fax from FIFA president Sepp Blatter.

　　"There's no sense of relief," Contiguglia said. "There's no time, really," he said.

　　The World Cup will take place in about the same time - September 23-October 11 - with only a few minor schedule changes, FIFA said.

　　The exact schedule will be announced soon.

　　FIFA also reconfirmed that China will qualify automatically for the tournament and said that the allocation of qualification places per confederation for the tournament will remain the same as it was before the tournament was rescheduled.The Asian Football Confederation will, therefore, still have 2.5 places, besides China, FIFA said.

　　The Asian berths will be decided at next month's AFC Women's Championships in Bangkok, Thailand.

　　The winners and runners-up will qualify for the World Cup while the third-placed team will play a playoff with Mexico for a spot in the finals.

　　Blatter expressed his gratitude to the Chinese Football Association "for their understanding and coopera-tion with FIFA following the Execu-tive Committee's decision on May 3."

　　The tournament will be held in four to seven stadiums, and the sites will be determined by FIFA and US organizers during the next few weeks, FIFA said.

　　The last Women's World Cup was highlighted by a crowd of 90,125 at the Rose Bowl for the final.

　　The Americans beat China in a penalty shootout, making Mia Hamm, Brandi Chastain and Briana Scurry household names.

　　But this year's event probably won't be so grand. Four years ago, games were held in June-July, with little competition from other major US sports.

　　This year, the World Cup will be up against the NFL, college football, the end of the baseball season and beginning of the playoffs, and the NHL openers.

　　Swedish soccer authorities were not surprised by FIFA's decision. Only four cities in Sweden have stadiums with more than 20,000 seats.

　　"We can understand that we have too small stadiums," said Jonas Nystedt, a spokesman for the country's governing soccer body.

　　Australia, Canada and Italy also had offered to stage the event.

　　Unlike the men's World Cup, which began in 1930, the women's event is fairly new and is not embraced with the same global fervor as the men's tournament.

　　The first Women's World Cup was held in China in 1991, when the US team won.

　　Norway was the 1995 winner, when Sweden was the host.