Starting from the International Taekwondo Championship slated for next month in Spain, a sudden-death system will be implemented to facilitate more objective scoring in taekwondo matches.

The World Taekwondo Federation held a special executive committee meeting in Lausanne, Switzerland and decided to introduce the new rule, along with reducing the running time of men's events to three two-minute rounds, among other rule revisions.

The changes will be implemented beginning at next month's world taekwondo championship games.

During the meeting, the federation also signed a global partnership contract with Korea's Samsung Electronics, which will be valid through 2008.

The traditional Korean sport of Taekwondo is a distinctive martial art characterized by its fast, high and spinning kicks.