NAIROBI (AFP) - A government-backed faction of the Kenya Football Federation will next week send a delegation to the Confederation of African Football (CAF) headquarters to seek the body´s backing in the country´s row with FIFA.

Officials said the six-man delegation headed by former KFF secretary general Hussein Swaleh will travel to Cairo to ask CAF to convince FIFA to reinstate the east African nation.

Peter Ochiel, the head of a government-backed football normalisation committee, said his team had written a letter to FIFA President Sepp Blatter, arguing that the government did not interfere with the running of the sport, except when it had to step in when the feuding factions failed to resolve their rows.

"We are saying that there is no government interference in KFF. The government came to intervene (when there was a problem). FIFA should be applauding the government, not criticising it," he added.

Last week, FIFA chided Nairobi for its continued interference in the sport despite recent efforts by the KFF to improve its administration and gave it till February 28 "to fully respect the FIFA statutes" or the country faces continued suspension.

If the ban is not lifted, Kenya will miss qualifiers for the African Cup of Nations and the World Cup.

But Nairobi told FIFA to keep out of its domestic affairs and stop meddling with efforts to clean up the sport, which has been racked by infighting and corruption.

Kenyan football has been plagued by woes in recent years and last October´s FIFA suspension was its second in two years.

The country was first suspended in 2004 for three months over government interference.