CAF president Issa Hayatou said he would be convening a meeting of all five African nations who have applied to host the tournament to try and persuade four of them to withdraw and unite behind South Africa.
Egypt, Morocco, Nigeria and Ghana have all tabled rival bids to South Africa.
Hayatou said: "We cannot prevent other African candidates from applying but we will try to bring all the bids together in order to stand a better chance.
"If they agree to stand down we would applaud them, then there would be one sole candidate."
Hayatou was speaking at the Football Expo trade fair in support of South Africa's 2006 bid. A presentation by South Africa's campaign team featured a 30-minute promotional video highlighting the country's sporting prowess and infrastruture, with addresses by President Nelson Mandela, Archbishop Desmond Tutu and other prominent figures.
The campaign's chief executive, Danny Jordaan, did his best to play down the problem of rising crime in his country.
"Sixty percent of the crime is specifically located in poorer areas. Take that away and our crime figures are no different to those in London or Paris."
Jordaan refuted suggestions, particularly in the rival English camp, that South Africa would not be able to meet FIFA requirements for staging the World Cup despite the publicly stated support of FIFA president Sepp Blatter.
Stressing that the country had already held the rugby World Cup, Jordaan said: "In terms of stadiums, hotels and telecommunications, we will not only meet but exceed those requirements. We have waited long enough."
Reuters
