LAHORE: The Asian Football Confederation (AFC) has announced that 34 countries, including Pakistan, will play the qualifying rounds of the 2012- London Olympics to be played next year.

The 2012 Summer Olympic Games, are scheduled to take place in London, from July 27 to August 12. London will become the first city to officially host the modern Olympic Games three times, having previously done so in 1908 and in 1948.

FIFA has revised continental quotas for Olympic football, allowing an extra seat for either Asia or Africa in the 2012 edition.

Asian and African nations currently compete for three seats, respectively, at the Olympics, while the host nation gets an automatic seat.

Under the revised quota system, countries that end fourth in both Asia and African qualifiers are set to compete against each other to also advance to the Olympics.

Countries to compete in the qualifiers are Australia, Bahrain, Bangladesh, China, Chinese Taipei, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Iran, Iraq, Japan, DPR Korea, Korea Republic, Kuwait, Kyrgyzstan, Leba-non, Malaysia, Maldives, Myanmar, Oman,Pakistan, Palestine, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, Sri Lanka, Syria, Tajikistan, Thailand, Turkmenistan, UAE, Uzbekistan, Vietnam and Yemen.