VIENNA  - The International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF) announced on Saturday that Canada will be the host country for the 20 World Junior Hockey Championships.

"I was really thrilled with the decision," Bob Nicholson, President, Hockey Canada said. "You have a lot of countries who were looking at hosting the World Juniors. But what matters is that our fans are the winners here. They made this happen because of how they support the event and how they also buy tickets for non-Canadian games."

Nicholson said that Hockey Canada will announce details by this fall on a bidding process for cities to host the 20 World Juniors.

The 2006 World Junior Hockey Championship will take place in British Columbia (Vancouver, Kelowna, Kamloops) this year (Dec.-Jan.), with ticket packages in Vancouver already sold out.

Canada won the 2005 World Junior Championship in North Dakota, and has hosted the event recently in Canada: Saskatoon hosted in 1991, Red Deer in '95, Winnipeg in '99 and Halifax in 2003. Montreal hosted the tournament in 1978.