KUALA LUMPUR, Dec. 27 (Xinhua) -- The Executive Board of the Commonwealth Games Federation (CGF) has agreed to include squash as one of the "core sports" of the Games, local newspaper reported Wednesday.

    The board made the decision after a detailed report from the federation's sports committee at a meeting in Kuala Lumpur, The Star, an English daily, reported.

    Following the decision, squash will be one of the 10 sports which shall be obligatory on the program for future editions of the Commonwealth Games.

    The others are athletics, aquatics, badminton, boxing, hockey, lawn bowls, netball, rugby sevens and weightlifting.

    "Since the sport's (squash) introduction to the Games program in 1998, the level of participation and excellence continues to grow and, at the recent Commonwealth Games in Melbourne, we saw 29participating nations (and regions)," Michael Hooper, chief executive of the CGF, was quoted as saying.

    The CGF Executive Board expects to see further development and welcomes squash as a core partner within the Commonwealth Games movement, Hooper said.