BERLIN, April 12 (Xinhua) -- About 10,000 tickets for the 2006 World Cup have been resold and 52,000 applications have been made for transferring tickets, representing only two percent of all sales, the German organizing committee said on Wednesday.

    The figures came from the first of two sales stages via a special ticket portal that lasted from March 27 to April 9. The second stage for transferring or reselling tickets will start May 1 and last until two days before the respective match at the June 9-July 9 finals.

    "Based on the 2.7 million sold tickets, the share of those who want to get rid of the ticket again is just two percent," said organizing committee vice-president Horst R. Schmidt.

    He said the resale tickets found a new owner within minutes, with the original buyer reimbursed as soon as the transaction was done.

    Those who apply for ticket transfer must give an appropriate reason, such as illness and visa problems.

    Among the applications, nearly half transfer their personalized tickets within the family, 18,000 were due to personal hardship and 8,500 illness, Schmidt said.

    He said those whose transfer application were dismissed can call for a special mediation, which has been set up by the organizing committee with German consumer ministry and a consumer organization. Enditem