South African cities due to host the 2010 World Cup have complained of funding shortfalls of billions of rand needed to build stadiums for the biggest sporting event ever to be held on the continent.

Estimates had swelled due to inflation, exchange rate fluctuations and rising input costs linked to shortages of skilled manpower and building materials, officials told a parliamentary sport committee.

"There is a big funding gap," Cape Town's 2010 administrator Mike Marsden told parliamentarians.

"While host cities will be engaging in all ways possible to reduce the gap, there will still be a residual gap that we have to engage (national) treasury about."

Cape Town alone faced a shortfall of about 1.258 billion rand (nearly $180 million) in secured funding.

The price for a new stadium for the city had escalated from 2.5 billion rand to over 3.7 billion rand, largely due to what Marsden described as extravagant construction tendering.

Construction of Cape Town's Green Point Stadium has to start by March.

Ten stadiums in nine South African cities are set to host the 2010 soccer extravaganza, with Cape Town hoping to get one of the semifinal matches.

Another semifinal contender, eThekwini - the new name for the eastern port city of Durban - told the committee it faced a 600 million rand shortfall.

Input costs grew due to a shortage of skilled construction staff and specialised equipment like large building cranes, said the city's 2010 program head Julie-May Ellingson.

"There is strong competition for resources in the construction industry."

The Nelson Mandela Bay Municipality in the Eastern Cape province said it was about 262 million rand short.

The treasury has set aside 15 billion rand for the World Cup, of which 12 billion rand was intended for stadium construction and upgrading.

More money was being sought, city officials said Tuesday, as negotiations with contractors were unlikely to bring the inflated price sufficiently down.

"We have made it very clear to all municipalities that (the) treasury will not be giving additional allocations to stadia," said treasury spokeswoman Thoraya Pandy.

"Based on the budgets they themselves presented, they should be able to comfortably cover the specifications identified by (world football governing body) FIFA."

The north-eastern municipality of Mbombela, formerly known as Nelspruit, said it would cut stadium amenities to make up for a shortfall of nearly 100 million rand.