Viduka, who earlier this month made the switch from Middlesbrough to local rivals Newcastle United, considered making himself unavailable for the Socceroos' first foray into Asian football in July's continental championship.

But the former Celtic and Leeds United striker had a change of heart just days before coach Graham Arnold named his squad for the finals, despite the repercussions it could have on life at his new club.

"It's a difficult situation," he said.

"You have to weigh up everything. You have to have a good rest before you start up again. Obviously playing for Australia is very important for me otherwise I wouldn't be here.

"Moving to a new club you have to assert yourself there. Newcastle is a big club with some good strikers and good players and it would be an advantage to start off from the start with the pre-season with whole team.

"Playing at the Asian Cup for my club perspective is a disadvantage for myself, and not just for myself there are a few other players who are in a similar position.

"So there's a lot of things you have to weigh up. But in the end I think playing for Australia was too important for me to give that up."

However, the 31-year-old refused to be drawn on his international plans after the tournament's conclusion on July 29.

"I haven't made a decision," Viduka added.

"I want to do as well as I can in this tournament for Australia and for the team and I think I'll have to make the decision later on as to what happens afterwards."

One person who will be trying his best to make sure Viduka remains part of the Australian set-up as they bid to qualify for the 2010 World Cup is coach Graham Arnold.

"While I'm involved I'm going to do my best to ensure that he does not retire," Arnold said.

"When we had the conversation a couple of weeks ago, I didn't sleep for two nights and he reckons he didn't either.

"He's so important to the nation. What he would add to our campaign for 2010 is experience and class and quality.

"The generations in Australia only provide a certain amount of that type of player and he's one of them.

"We've had private chats before about 2010 and they've been good chats and I think he has a massive role to play, but at the end of the day he's his own man."

However, if Viduka does decide to call it a day after the Asian Cup, Arnold insisted he would respect the talismanic striker's wishes.

"I will never try to convince someone to play for Australia," he added.

"So it's one step at a time, it's the Asian Cup and after that we'll talk.

"You have to want to do it and Mark wants to do it and you can see from what he has said and why he's here.

"He's loves to play for Australia and he's a proud Australian."