LAHORE, Jan 3: Asian Football Confederation (AFC) has included Pakistan in the qualifying draw of the 14th Asian Cup after Sri Lanka pulled out.

Pakistan Football Federation said on Tuesday that the draw of the Cup would take place on Wednesday.

Pakistan took part in the pre-qualifying round against Bangladesh on Dec 22 and 26, drew 0-0 at away match in Dhaka before losing in Karachi 1-0.

The two lower ranked teams went through the pre-qualifying phase after 25 teams sent entries for 24 qualifying slots.

The seeding for the qualifying round of the Asian Cup has been made with defending champions Japan getting top billing.

Japan will be joined by China, Iran, Bahrain, Jordan and Uzbekistan in Pot A. One team will be drawn in each of the six qualifying groups at the draw at AFC House.

This is the first time in the history of the competition that hosts would have to qualify, a change introduced recently by AFC president Mohamed Bin Hammam in line with current practice in other football competitions.

The system was decided on performances in qualifying round for Asian Cup 2004, leaving Korea and Saudi Arabia in the second pot. Malaysia, Vietnam, Indonesia and Thailand qualified automatically as hosts.

Qualification will begin on Feb 22, with the 24 teams split into six groups.

The top two teams from each group will qualify for the final.

Pot A (seeds 1-6): 1. Japan, 2. China, 3. Iran, 4. Bahrain, 5. Uzbekistan, 6 Jordan.

Pot B (seeds 7-12) 7. South Korea, 8. Iraq, 9. Oman, 10. Kuwait, 11. Saudi Arabia, 12. Qatar.

Pot C (seeds 13-18) 13. UAE, 14. Yemen, 15. Syria, 16. Lebanon, 17. Singapore, 18. Hong Kong.

Pot D (seeds 19-24) 19. Palestine, 20. Chinese Taipei, 21. Bangladesh, 22. Pakistan, 23. India, 24. Australia.