The Rugby League International Federation have announced plans to expand the Tri-Nations series to include France from 2009.

Australia, Great Britain and New Zealand have competed in the triangular tournament for the last three seasons but the RLIF, at their meeting in Brisbane today, asked the French governing body to provide a business plan and costings for their participation.

By expanding the series, the countries would meet each other once instead of twice and, in playing two matches a week, the end-of-season competition could be squeezed into just four weeks instead of seven.

The Tri-Series, currently being held Down Under for the first time, goes into cold storage at the end of this year to make way for the build-up to the 2008 World Cup in Australia.

It is set to be revived in 2009 in Britain and France when it is hoped the French, under former Wigan and Parramatta coach John Monie, will have improved sufficiently to compete with the big three.

France's revival suffered a setback when they failed to reach Sunday's final of the Federation Shield after losing to both England and Tonga, although Rugby League executive chairman Richard Lewis hailed the success of the tournament at today's meeting.

"The Federation Shield has been a very successful tournament and provided a very good international opportunity for Tonga and Samoa," Lewis said.

"It's been a very good experience for the English and French players, who matched themselves up against teams they haven't seen very much of.

"English fans were taken aback by the standard of the Samoan and Tongan teams and the RFL expects an exciting final, which will be shown live in both Tonga and England."

Federation chairman Colin Love said the success of both the Federation Shield and Tri-Nations tournaments had paved the way for an exciting build-up to the 2008 World Cup.

A total of 90,567 fans have watched the four games in Australia and New Zealand so far, which is down on the inaugural tournament in 2004 but represents a significant increase on the figures at the same stage last year.

Britain's shock win over the Kangaroos in Sydney last week has ignited fresh interest in the competition, with advanced ticket sales for the return game in Brisbane tomorrow week already topping 30,000.

"The Federation noted the success of the Tri Nations thus far, in particular the crowd figure for Melbourne and the excellent ticket sales for the upcoming match in Brisbane," Love said.

"In addition to the standard of play, one of the most pleasing aspects for the RLIF is the consequent economic benefit for both of those cities.

"Those factors augur well for the World Cup in 2008 and the RLIF is pleased with this progress made in the all-important lead up to our game's biggest event."

The Federation approved a request from Fiji, who have already qualified for the World Cup, to host an Under-18 international tournament next year.