Other opening matches Tuesday are United Arab Emirates vs. Uzbekistan, Thailand vs. Palestine, Brunei against Vietnam, Kuwait vs. Yemen and host Qatar against Jordan.

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Iran will enter the tournament as a seeded team after FIFA temporarily lifted the defending champion's competition ban. Iran will face India, Hong Kong and the Maldives in Group D after the tournament's second round was redrawn Monday.

Iran's return to the tournament is a blow for qualifier Iraq, which replaced its rival neighbor as the Pool D seed in Sunday's original draw. Iraq will now contest Pool E with China, Oman and Malaysia.

Soccer world governing body FIFA suspended Iran from international soccer last week for failing to reinstate its elected president, Mohammed Dadgan, and comply with FIFA statutes regarding the independence of member associations.

While table tennis and baseball get under way Wednesday, there's plenty of action _ in rehearsals _ happening already at Khalifa Stadium for Friday's opening ceremonies.

Games officials say costume designers have spent the last two years researching various cultures that will be part of the 6,500 costumes during the opening festivities.

Khalifa Stadium was originally built in 1976 but received a major upgrade for the games, including expanded seating to 50,000 from 20,000.

The organizing committee hired Australia's David Atkins, the man behind the Sydney Olympics 2000 opening and closing ceremonies, to handle the same duties in Doha.

Chinese pop singer Jacky Cheung, India's Bollywood star Sunidhi Chauhan, Lebanese artist Magida El Roumi and Spanish tenor Jose Carreras will be among the performers Friday.

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