Kuala Lumpur, Oct 2: Pakistan women's hockey team has pulled out of the Asian Games to be held in Doha from December 1-15, leaving only seven teams in the fray.

Earlier, there were eight teams involved and placed in two groups. With Pakistan's withdrawal, organisers may switch the competition to a round-robin affair.

Pakistan were in Group B along with South Korea, Japan & Hong Kong. Group A comprised China, India, Malaysia & Taiwan.

Asian Hockey Federation (AHF) secretary general Tan Sri P. Alagendra said they were informed of Pakistan's withdrawal last week.

''We will meet soon to decide on the format and we may keep to two groups drawn earlier. In Busan there were only four teams in the fray. We had hoped there would be eight this time around. Still there is an increase in the number of teams in both men's and women's categories,'' said Alagendra.

For men's event, there will be 10 teams divided into two groups. Group A comprises Pakistan, Japan, Malaysia, Hong Kong and Taiwan while India, South Korea, Bangladesh, China and Oman are in Group B.—Agencies