China, a major power in the volleyball circuit, has withdrawn from this year's world league championship for men due to the SARS outbreak in the country.

SARS has so far claimed 214 lives in China.

"China has agreed to withdraw from the 2003 world League in the wake of the SARS epidemic," Xinhua news agency quoted a statement from the International Volleyball Federation as saying in Lausanne, Switzerland.

China has been replaced by Bulgaria, the report said.

The $15 million world league, now in its 14th edition, pits 16 elite national teams against each other in six weeks of inter-continental rounds, after which the top eight contest the finals, this year in the Spanish capital Madrid.