TEHRAN - Iran's World Cup soccer squad leaves next week for training camps in Italy and Croatia, Iranian television said on Friday. A 24-man squad will travel to Italy on Monday and Iran will announce its final squad of 22 after the Italian training camp. Iran will play two warm-up games in Italy against first division teams as Roma on May 19 and Inter Milan on May 23.

There will be a friendly against Croatia, the home country of Iran's coach Tomislav Ivic, on June 3. The squad then travels on June 7 to France, a week before their first group match against Yugoslavia in St Etienne. Squad: Goalkeepers: Ahmadreza Abedzadeh, Nima Nakisa. Defenders: Parviz Boroumand, Mohammad Khakpour, Javad Zarrincheh, Naeem Saadavi, Ali Akbar Ostad Asadi, Afshin Peyrovani. Midfielders: Mehrdad Minavand, Alireza Mansourian, Hamid Estili, Mehdi Pashazadeh, Nader Mohammadkhani, Farshad Falahatzadeh, Reza Shahroudi, Sirous Deenmohammadi, Karim Bagheri. Forwards: Sattar Hamedani, Farhad Majidi, Mehdi Mahdavikia, Ali Daei, Khodadad Azizi, Behnam Seraj, Ali Latifi.