BERLIN, Jan. 18 (Xinhuanet) -- German Chancellor Angela Merkel rejected calls to ban Iran's football team from taking part in the World Cup, to be held in Germany this summer, an official said here Wednesday.

    "She personally does not think much of the idea of keeping Iran out of the games," said her spokesman Ulrich Wilhelm.

    Such a move would only impact on sports and Iranian footballs fans, Wilhelm said, stressing that Iran's resumption of its nuclear activities, comments denying the Holocaust and wiping out Israel from the earth all came from Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, "not the football team".

    The World Cup, to last from June 9 to July 9, will gather 32 countries in 12 German cities.

    In a relative development, the German government announced Wednesday that it would not help fund an unofficial opening gala to be thrown in Berlin before the World Cup after the FIFA cancelled last week the original one.

    Christoph Bergner of the Christian Democratic Union voiced the government's regret over FIFA's cancellation of the original gala, which was planned to held on June 9 in Berlin's Olympic stadium.

    Funds from the state for the football event would be used for other issues and it was not the government's duty to finance the unofficial party, to take place on June 7 in Berlin, Bergner said.

    On the same day, the German Foreign Ministry has completed its visa plans for World Cup fans and informed 11 countries -- Angola, Ecuador, Ghana, Iran, Saudi Arabia, Serbia and Montenegro, Togo, Trinidad and Tobago, Tunisia, Ukraine and Cote d'Ivoire.

    Fans from these countries will all require entry visas to follow their teams, the ministry said, adding referees, players and other officials from listed nations will also be subject to visa restrictions.

    But the German government promised to make the process as efficient as possible. Enditem