A stadium in Moscow. -AFP Photo

MOSCOW: Three Russian cities-Yekaterinburg, Moscow and Saint Petersburg - are bidding to host the 2018 World Cup semi-finals, the country’s sports minister Vitaly Mutko said on Tuesday.

Mutko, who also heads the World Cup organising committee, said that 13 cities and 15 stadiums have expressed their interest in hosting matches for the world's biggest football extravaganza.

Moscow represents the central cluster of the event's probable host cities with the northern cluster consisting of Saint Petersburg and Kaliningrad.

Yaroslavl, Kazan, Nizhny Novgorod, Samara, Volgograd and Saransk were included in the Volga river cluster, while Sochi, Rostov-on-Don and Krasnodar formed the southern cluster. Ural mountains region's city Yekaterinburg is also bidding to host matches.

“I'm glad to announce that we initiated the creation of the legislative base which is required for holding the World Cup in Russia,” Mutko told a news conference that followed the first joint meeting of FIFA and World Cup organisers.

“The World Cup federal bill will be presented in the lower house of parliament in the next year's first quarter. And I would like to confirm the government's firm intention of keeping the promises given to FIFA for holding this unique tournament.”

The sports minister added that the host cities would be announced in October 2012.

FIFA Secretary General Jerome Valcke, who represented the football world governing body at the meeting, said he was impressed with Russia's work in the 10 months since they won the right to host the tournament.

“It's very inspiring to see the organising committee and Russian government's enthusiasm and aspiration to co-operate with FIFA,” Valcke said.

“We would like to keep up our pace in the remaining time as we have plenty of work to do.”