BERLIN (REUTERS) - Badminton will make its Paralympics debut in Tokyo in 2020, after the International Paralympic Committee on Tuesday included it in the first batch of approved sports for the event.

Badminton, hugely popular in Asia, is already an Olympic sport.

"I would like to congratulate the 16 sports that we have already confirmed will be included in the Tokyo 2020 Paralympic Games, in particular badminton, which after missing out four years ago, submitted a very strong application," IPC president Philip Craven said after a governing board meeting in Berlin.

"The IPC looks forward to working with the Badminton World Federation (BWF) over the coming years to manage their smooth transition into the 2020 sports programme."

The IPC approved 16 sports, including athletics, archery, equestrian, powerlifting, rowing and wheelchair basketball among others, as part of the Tokyo Paralympics.

Eight other sports, including cycling, whose federation applied too late to be considered at the Berlin meeting, and football, will be reviewed early next year for inclusion.

Both these sports are part of the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Paralympics sports programme. "For the eight sports still in the running, we identified a number of issues with their submissions, or, in the case of UCI, it was submitted too late to be assessed at this meeting," Craven said.

"The IPC governing board will re-evaluate these applications when it meets in Abu Dhabi (in January) and will make its final decision on the number of sports, and which sports will be included in the Tokyo 2020 Paralympic sports programme."