Refereeing officials at this year's World Cup Finals will be told to clamp down harder than ever on players who commit any serious foul-play, with the ability to issue straight red cards to offenders.

The Referees are being told to try and eliminate time-wasting, elbowing, diving and serious foul play from the game following the annual meeting of the International Football Association Board on Saturday.

“The stars of the tournament will serve as role models for hundreds of millions of other players around the world,” said FIFA President Sepp Blatter. “So it is all the more important that Germany 2006 sets a positive example.”

“It is paramount there is better refereeing in 2006 than there was in 2002,” said Blatter.

The International Board, soccer's ultimate law-making body which comprises of four representatives from FIFA and the four British football associations, also sanctioned a number of modifications to the laws of the game.

Approval was also given for World Cup match officials to communicate with each other by radio, should a suitable system be found in time.

Referees and officials have been using one in Scotland for the last three seasons and that system is expected to be modified for the Finals.

The International Board also paved the way for further experiments to take place in goal-line technology with the Adidas "Smartball" microchip technology and also welcomed continuing experiments with a new Italian system using digital cameras.

Sepp Blatter said afterwards: “We will go on with the experiments with the Smartball because we had some very positive results when it was used in last year's Under-17 tournament in Peru, but the results were not conclusive.

“There will be no goal-line technology at the World Cup, but we could have a communications system for the officials.”

As far as guidance for referee’s, the Board highlighted an eight-point “hit-list” which officials will be told to look out for at the World Cup Finals, with orders to punish to the fullest extent of the law.

They are: elbowing, reckless tackling, shirt-pulling, time-wasting, attitude towards referees, diving, behaviour in the wall at free-kicks and wearing jewellery.

Of those elbowing, reckless tackling and serious foul play will all be punished by immediate red cards, while shirt pulling, and those players who provoke a confrontation by deliberately touching the ball after the referee has stopped play will be yellow carded.

FIFA will warn players who surround or insult the referee they also face a yellow card.

Jose-Maria Garcia, FIFA's refereeing chief, told reporters: “We have to bear in mind the safety of players, take care of them and take care of the game.

“The game has to flow as much as possible and we are trying to deal with these kind of delaying tactics and those which endanger the players with the strongest sanctions we can use.”

The decisions taken by the Board on Saturday will be relayed to the 32 World Cup coaches taking part in their two-day workshop in Dusseldorf next Monday and Tuesday.

The shortlist of the 44 referees that will officiate at the World Cup Finals will also be announced at a referee’s workshop in Frankfurt between March 21-25.

The decisions have been welcomed by David Davies, Chief Executive of the Football Association.

“It was very important that the Board raised the awareness of everyone concerned with the World Cup about these issues as they affect everyone involved,” said Davies.