Seventy thousand people from 120 countries placed orders through the Internet after the site, www.FIFAworldcup.com, opened for business at midnight (2300 GMT).

Around 812,000 tickets are available in the first phase.

The website experienced some initial technical difficulties but did not crash despite the heavy demand, organisers said.

"The orders came flying in as soon as the starting whistle went," said Horst R. Schmidt, who is responsible for ticketing in his role as senior vice-president of the organising committee.

"Fortunately, our technical system withstood the initial stampede and proved its reliability."

The organisers stressed that the tickets 'bought' in the first phase of sale until March 31 were effectively only applications because if, as seems certain, demand exceeds supply then tickets will not be distributed on a first come, first served basis but rather via a lottery.

In the second phase which runs from May 1 to November 15 this year, the first come, first served principle will apply.

The 12 stadiums for the competition will have a gross capacity of 3.37 million for the 64 matches, but with 440,000 seats reserved for VIP guests and the media, a total of around 2.93 million tickets will go on sale around the world.

However this figure includes tickets allocated to the national federations for them to distribute.

In the Internet sale, fans are restricted to four tickets per person for any individual match in the lower price categories with a maximum of seven tickets per person for all matches in the same category.

The tickets range in price from 35 euros (45.5 dollars) to 600 euros.

The World Cup finals begin on June 9, 2006 with the final in Berlin on July 9, 2006.