Work on all stadiums to be used during the 2010 World Cup in South Africa will be finished by October 2009, a South African official said yesterday.

Deputy finance minister Jabu Moleketi said in Pretoria, that work on all the stadium projects had started and that 1.9 billion rand (US$275 million) from next year's budget would be brought forward to October this year as the "tempo of construction" increases, the SAPA news agency reported.

He also commented that some of those stadiums are likely to be finished ahead of time. It has also been confirmed that the 2010 World Cup final would be played at Soccer City in Johannesburg, with the new Green Point stadium in Cape Town and a new stadium in Durban hosting the semifinals.