AP

Sydney, May 30: Soccer's governing body FIFA lifted the international ban on Iraq, allowing Sunday's World Cup qualifier against Australia to go ahead.

FIFA had suspended Iraq on Tuesday over what it said was government interference in the domestic running of the sport by dissolving the national Olympic committee and all sports federations.

The ban was provisionally lifted just hours before a Thursday midnight, Sydney local time, deadline after FIFA said it received documentation from Iraqi officials which explained the situation.

"FIFA received a letter from the General Secretariat for the Council of Ministers of the Republic of Iraq, confirming that the IFA had been 'excluded' from the above-mentioned decree, thereby re-establishing the statutory order of the Iraqi association and its leaders, who will 'continue their activities inside and outside Iraq until legal election'," FIFA said in a statement.

However, FIFA said that more meetings would be scheduled with Iraqi officials in Zurich and that the ban could be re-imposed if certain criteria were not met.

"This letter is a positive step, however it does not fully answer all of FIFA's concerns about the governmental attempts to control the Iraqi federations and the Iraqi National Olympic Committee," FIFA said.

"Therefore, FIFA has decided to lift the suspension imposed on the IFA, but on a purely provisional and conditional basis."