BANGKOK - THE Asian Tour has condemned the rival OneAsia golf tour of attempting to invade the continent, issuing a strongly worded statement on Wednesday in response to fresh speculation about the organisational future of the sport in the region.

The Asian Tour's statement came after reports the Japanese Golf Tour had held talks with US PGA and European Tour officials about bringing events from those tours to Japan.

The talks deepen the uncertainty about which sanctioning bodies will control Asian golf in the near term.

The Australasian, Japanese, Chinese and South Korean tours had been party to the creation of the One Asia tour, which had initial plans for a combined tour in those nations from 2009.

However organisers had said 2010 now appeared the more likely start, and with the proposed tour downscaled from a full-blown tour to a smaller series of high-profile tournaments open to leading players from the participating nations, without the need for a tour card.

The Asian Tour said on Wednesday that it would support a series of four to six World Golf Championship-style events in Asia, saying that was agreed by the various competing bodies in the region during meetings in China in May and at the British Open in July.

'The Australasian Tour, which has initiated the formation of the OneAsia Tour, has subsequently held meetings in Asia without inviting the Asian Tour to these meetings, which we view as going against the spirit of cooperation and an attempt to invade Asia,' said Wednesday's Asian Tour statement attributed to executive chairman Kyi Hla Han.

'We are appalled with the Australasian Tour's attempt to create another tour in this region as the Asian Tour has already successfully achieved this objective with our well-documented growth over the past decade.'

The Asian Tour has been the principal organizing tour in the continent since 1995, but has no presence in Australasia and in 2008 had just one event in Japan, co-sanctioned by the Japanese Golf Tour.

Of the seven Asian Tour events in China, all but two are co-sanctioned. -- AP