'Argentina will not go because we cannot confirm the team,' said spokesman Raul Steimberg.

Earlier, Argentina Football Association (AFA) president Julio Grondona said the squad could not play next week because the players were sent on holiday when the South American Football Confederation (CSF) postponed its showpiece event last Saturday.

The farcical run-up to the Copa America continued later in the day when Canada pulled out and Argentina then said they might reconsider - but only next Tuesday, one day before the competition begins.

'We have to see how events develop,' Argentina Football Association (AFA) president Julio Grondona said. 'We will wait until Tuesday because I want the opinion of all members of the executive committee. But it's not the AFA's policy to form a team in three days.'

Argentina's likely absence means the Copa America will be irrelevant in deciding the 'champions of America' and, coupled with the withdrawal of Canada, leaves the CSF with an awkward number of 10 teams in its competition.

Canada said on Friday they had withdrawn from next week's controversy-plagued Copa America soccer tournament because it did not have enough time to pull together a squad.

Canada, who had been due to take part as a guest competitor, last week allowed its players to go back to their clubs after the initial cancellation.

'At this time it would be impossible for us to regroup as our players are scattered across Europe with their clubs in various preseason camps,' Canadian Soccer Association president Jim Fleming said in a statement.

It also means that only Bolivia and Uruguay will compete in group C in Medellin, with, bizarrely, the top two in the group going into the next round. Thus, group C is now a non event.

The teams in group A are Chile, Ecuador, Colombia and Venezuela, while Peru, Paraguay, Brazil and Mexico will compete in group B.

The CSF did not comment on whether it would re-distribute the groups or alter the rules to compensate for Argentina's absence.

Even before the postponement, Argentina had planned to send a reserve team to the tournament after deciding to focus their priorities on the World Cup qualifying competition.

Other teams said they would go but admitted they had been caught on the hop and were frantically trying to reassemble squads wich had been dispersed when the Copa was postponed last Saturday.

'It's going to be difficult now because some of our players are on holiday,' said Mexico midfielder Cesario Victorino.

Mexican Football Federation official Alejandro Burillo said: '(coach) Javier Aguirre had two plans, one if there was a Copa and one if there wasn't.'

Chile coach Pedro Garcia said: 'This isn't the best way of doing things but we have to take risks, improvise and adapt to certain situations. I think this was the least bad of all the options.'

Brazil confirmed that they would send a second-string team to the tournament. Coach Luiz Felipe Scolari left out top players such as Rivaldo, Romario, Antontio Carlos and Roberto Carlos when he named his squad for the tournament for the second time.

On the first occasion, he said he had accepted their requests for a break after a long season with their clubs in Europe.

Scolari, whose first game in charge was last Sunday's 1-0 World Cup qualifying defeat in Uruguay, included a number of untried youngsters in the squad.

Squad:

Goalkeers: Marcos (Palmeiras), Dida (AC Milan).

Defenders: Belleti (Sao Paulo), Alessandro (Atletico Paranaense), Roger (Gremio), Junior (Parma), Cris (Cruzeiro), Lucio (Bayer Leverkusen), Roque Junior (Milan), Juan (Flamengo).

Mifielders: Emerson Ferreira (AS Roma), Fabio Rochemback (Barcelona), Eduardo Costa (Gremio), Mauro Silva (Juventude), Juninho Paulista (Vasco), Alex (Palmeiras), Juninho Pernambucano (Olympique Lyon).

Forwards: Denilson (Betis), Elber (Bayern Munich), Jardel (Marseille), Ewerthon (Corinthians), Geovanni (Barcelona).

Fears of heavy losses at the Brazilian company wich holds the television rights to the Copa America played a pivotal role in reinstating the event for its original date.

Sports marketing giant Traffic lobbied the South American Football Confederation (CSF) in Buenos Aires, where the surprise decision came late on Thursday, days after the event was to have been delayed to next year due to violence in Colombia.

'Traffic imposed the Copa,' said a high-ranking official at the Colombian Football Confederation, who preferred to remain anonymous. According to the official, Traffic faced a lawsuit for £100m in damages for breach of contract from television stations that bought the rights to transmit the games.

Romer Osuna Anez, treasurer for the CSF, told a local radio in Argentina: 'Traffic certainly had a lot to do with the decision. It was the most worried with the suspension and delay of the Copa America, given its contracts with a large number of television channels."

Officials at the Sao Paulo-based Traffic said no one was available to comment on the company's role in the rescheduling.