South Korea is gearing up for the World Cup by giving its toilets an urgent makeover.

Officials are thinking big about the smallest room, lavishing expensive decor on lavatories and designing 'themed' toilets in a bid to win the title of "Finest Rest Room in Seoul".

Korea's "outhouse experience" has long been panned by visiting Westerners. But the country has now launched the Rest Room movement and is determined visitors will be bowled over by the standard of its lavatories during World Cup 2002.

Art shows have even been thrown in lavs, and there is now a guided tour of the city's top 50 conveniences.

One top toilet is said to have an "urbane image of high class", with dressing tables, aromatic toilet paper and hair dryers. Another has an art show, while a government-run loo is designed with a medieval theme and a "castle motif" .

Plants, colored lighting, ultra-high ceilings, cigarette machines and heavy steel ashtrays are becoming standard fittings in many conveniences.

Traditional Korean toilets are installed in the floor, requiring an awkward squatting stance. They also proved too small for tall westerners.

The rest room movement was launched after criticism of its WCs during the Seoul Olympics, reports the South China Morning Post. Pyo Hae-ryung, president of the Citizens' Coalition for Rest Room Culture, says: "The foreigners from the West feel very uncomfortable about the bad state of bathrooms.

"Also the World Cup is coming to Korea and it would be embarrassing if our rest rooms were of Third World quality. We are starting to make a major impact on the public idea of a rest room."

Internet firms are also getting behind the movement. ClickCulture is offering guided tours of the capital's most pristine toilets.