(REUTERS) - Bahrain and Brunei are backing Jordan's Prince Ali bin al-Hussein to oust incumbent Sepp Blatter as president of world football's ruling body Fifa, the Jordanian news agency Petra reported on Tuesday.

It said Bahrain's King Hamad and Brunei's Prince Sufri had met Prince Ali, the Fifa vice-president for Asia, in Manama to discuss the May vote and both men had assured Prince Ali of their countries' support.

The Bahrain News Agency stopped short of saying the monarch had endorsed the candidacy, however, reporting that King Hamad had commended the Jordanian's work with Fifa and wished him "every success".

Four candidates are standing for the top job in world football at the May 29 election, including Blatter, who is celebrating his 79th birthday on Tuesday.

The other two are Michael van Praag, president of the Dutch governing body KNVB, and former Portugal winger Luis Figo.

The South American Football Confederation (Conmebol) has signalled that it will back Blatter, who is favourite to win a fifth term in office, although observers noted there was no public endorsement of the Swiss at its recent congress.

Blatter is expected to sweep up most of the votes from Asia, Africa and South America.

European football's governing body Uefa, which has 53 of the 209 votes, has yet to declare a favoured candidate.