(Reuters) The New Zealand Rugby Football Union (NZRFU) was dumped as a co-host of the Rugby World Cup by the Australian Rugby Union and the IRB's subsidiary organising the event when it could not guarantee 100 percent "clean venues" - grounds free of commercial sponsorship, advertising, and pre-booked seating.
Australia has since been working on a plan to ensure it is the sole host of the event.
"We think it is in the best interests of the game, Rugby World Cup 2003 and its sponsors that the differences between the parties are resolved as quickly and as quietly as possible," NZRFU chief executive David Rutherford said.
The International Rugby Board (IRB), rugby's world governing body, will make a final decision on staging the World Cup at a council meeting in Dublin on April 12.
Rutherford said he would make no other comment until the NZRFU had exhausted all possibilities of a "mutually acceptable resolution".
New Zealand rugby officials say they had approached the International Rugby Board (IRB) with a plan to resolve the hosting of next year's Rugby World Cup.
