LONDON: While England are seeded to retain the title in the Women's World Team Squash Championship in Egypt later this month, Pakistan are a surprising omission, according to the team line-ups announced here on Wednesday by the World Squash Federation.

China will make their debut in the 2008 Championship which has attracted 19 nations to the National Stadium in Cairo, from November 30 to December 6.

England have reached the final on 12 occasions since the inaugural biennial event in 1979, with victory on six occasions.

Hosts Egypt, who celebrated a best-ever second place finish in 2006, are seeded to meet England again in the final and will be led by Omneya Abdel Kawy, the 23-year-old world No.8 who is already a 'veteran' of five championships since 1998.

New Zealand are seeded to finish in third place - two places higher than their outcome in the previous championships - while Netherlands are expected to repeat their fourth place finish in 2006.

But Malaysia, led by world number one Nicol David and bronze medal winners in Canada for the first time, are seeded five and will have to overcome Netherlands in the Pool D qualifying competition in order to avoid the top two seeds in the quarter-finals.

Teams will meet in the following pools (seeding indicated) before moving into the knockout stages from December 4.

Pool A: 1 England, 8. France, 9 Hong Kong, 16 Spain, 17 Austria. Pool B: 2 Egypt, 7 Australia, 10 Canada, 15 Japan, 18 Switzerland. Pool C: 3 New Zealand, 6 Ireland, 11 USA, 14 Italy, 19 China. Pool D: 4 Malaysia, 5 Netherlands, 12 Germany, 13 South Africa.