The sanction was imposed on the Tahitian, along with fellow FIFA executive committee member Amos Adamu, after they were the subjects of an undercover investigation by the Sunday Times, who allege the pair asked for cash in return for votes in the 2018 and 2022 World Cup bidding process, due to take place on December 2.

A statement released by the OFC this morning read: "Following the decision made by the FIFA ethics committee on October 20, 2010 to temporarily suspend OFC president Reynald Temarii, OFC welcomes the opportunity for Mr Temarii to be able to present his case to the FIFA ethics committee in respect to the alleged breach of the FIFA code of ethics. OFC will continue to co-operate fully with the proceedings if required.

"In accordance with the OFC statutes, senior vice-president David Chung is the acting OFC president.

"It is business as usual for OFC and no further comments will be made until the FIFA ethics committee has dealt with this matter."

Last night Nigerian official Adamu protested his innocence in a statement which read: "Allegations were made against me by a British newspaper on October 17, 2010 which prompted a FIFA ethics committee meeting which concluded I should be provisionally suspended from my FIFA duties.

"Whilst I wholly refute all allegations made, I fully support the inquiry since it is important that these claims are thoroughly investigated.

"Only by doing this will FIFA - and the wider football community - be able to trust that its appointed representatives are beyond reproach."

Meanwhile, the president of the Portuguese federation, Gilberto Madail, said his organisation had greeted the news that his country's joint bid with Spain to stage the 2018 World Cup was being investigated over allegations of collusion with the Qatar 2022 bid with "surprise and indignation".

The Iberian and Qatari bid teams are being investigated by FIFA's ethics committee regarding allegations they were conspiring to trade votes, sources close to football's world governing body told Press Association Sport on Thursday.

Madail said: "We received with surprise and indignation the analysis that FIFA's ethics committee may conduct on a rumour... circulated in September in the English media about an alleged deal between the Iberian and the Qatari bids for hosting the World Cup.

"It is odd that there is an attempt to launch completely unfounded suspicions about the Iberian bid at a time when there are news reports about alleged vote-selling for the 2018 and 2022 World Cups involving other bids."

Collusion between bidding countries is explicitly forbidden by FIFA's regulations, but FIFA chiefs have ruled out postponing the December 2 vote.

The investigation into the allegations against the Spain-Portugal and Qatar bids is entirely separate from the probe into Temarii and Adamu.