So far only India, Malaysia and Games hosts Thailand have confirmed their entries in the three-ball green baize sport while only four, including India, have shown interest to take part in carrom.

As per Asian Games regulations a competition cannot be held if the number of teams is less than five which have endangered the holding of billiards and carrom, reports Xinhua.

Pool has just about reached the required figure while snooker, the most popular among the four green baize events, is better off having attracted ten entries.

Meanwhile, the number of athletes and officials registering for the 13th Games is far below the expected 10,000 because of the deepening economic crisis.

An official of the Bangkok Asian Games organising committee (BAGOC) said today that the committee was leaving open the registration date forindividual events in the hope of attracting more entries.

The football competition also seems certain to fall short of the expected number of 32 teams. So far only 27 have confirmed their entries for the event.

The BAGOC's technical committee revealed yesterday that in all 40 countries and regions would send athletes to compete in the games. However, the number of countries and regions taking part in individual events was a disappointing 25.