SEOUL. Dec 3: South Korean Internet-surfers have been shocked to be faced with pornography when they tried to find the homepage of the newly unveiled mascots of the 2002 World Cup. a newspaper said Thursday, reports AFP.

The cyber-confusion emerged a day after the debut of three imaginary creatures called "Atmos" as symbols of the football extravaganza to be co-hosted by South Korea and Japan.

"After the World Cup mascots were unveiled. I tried to find the domain address and searched www.atmo.com. which seemed to be the most likely address," Wi Hyung-Bok, 38. was quoted as saying by the Munhwa daily.

"But when I did so. an adult site popped up. enticing you to join the club.” he said.

The website, seen here, showed a naked woman under a slogan reading. "Congratulations. you have found the best adult site on the Web."

The page also warns "sexually explicit" material can be found on the site.

Officials were quoted as saying that the real website for the football Atmos had yet to be unveiled.

Organisers of the 2002 World Cup said their mascots, called Atmo in singular, were designed to fit well into Internet products and multimedia marketing.

When unveiling the outerspace mascots here and in Tokyo on Wednesday, football's governing body FIFA warned against unauthorised use of the three translucent cartoon characters, who live in the high in the sky in a place called "Atmo-.zone." j