The committee provisionally suspended Mohamed bin Hammam, who hours earlier had announced his withdrawal from the presidential campaign, and fellow executive committee member Jack Warner, but said Blatter would face no further investigation.

The ruling means Blatter, the 75-year-old Swiss who has run world soccer's governing body since 1998, will stand unopposed at Wednesday's election, with FIFA secretary general Jerome Valcke confirming the vote would go ahead as planned.

Blatter has stated it will be his final term before retiring from FIFA, which during his time in charge has grown rich through sales of TV rights, sponsorship and merchandising opportunities and currently boasts reserves of over $1 billion.

While FIFA's financial situation is sound, recent scandals have provoked widespread calls for reform of the powerful executive committee at the organization's heart.

Last November, two other exco members, Reynald Temarii and Amos Adamu, were banned over the cash-for-votes allegations concerning the hosting of the 2018 and 2022 World Cups.

In all, allegations about corruption have now been publicly made against 10 of the 24 members of the committee.

Blatter recognized that FIFA's image had suffered as a result of recent events.

"I do not wish to comment in detail but simply to say that I regret what has happened in the last few days and weeks," Blatter said in a statement after the hearing.

"FIFA's image has suffered a great deal as a result, much to the disappointment of FIFA itself and all football fans." The allegations considered by the ethics committee concerned a meeting of the Caribbean Football Union in May 10-11 in Port of Spain, attended by CONCACAF president Warner, Bin Hammam and Caribbean soccer officials.

CONCACAF is the governing body for soccer in north and Central America and the Caribbean.

"Some individuals alleged that money was paid as an inducement to support Bin Hammam's candidacy, facilitated by Jack Warner," ethics committee deputy chairman Petrus Damaseb told reporters.

Damaseb stressed that the committee regarded the officials, who have denied any wrongdoing, as innocent until proved guilty.

Blatter was interrogated at Bin Hammam's request because he may have known about payments, FIFA said, but Damaseb said nothing wrong had been found.

General secretary Valcke agreed with Blatter that FIFA's image had taken a hit and said there was a need for reform.

"The reputation of FIFA? Maybe it's not at the highest, that's clear," Valcke told reporters. "It's sad.

"Definitely there is a need for change. I'm not a FIFA president so he is the one who must decide what he wants to do and FIFA must make the necessary changes so that the institution has systems in place to avoid something like this happening again.

"This is the pattern of the work which we have to do very quickly in the next months: to change what has to be changed and put in place a number of systems to make sure that the presidential election also comes under a number of rules."