TOKYO - Britain's male gymnastics team will have to make a last-gasp bid to qualify for next year's home Olympics after failing to secure one of the eight London places up for grabs at the world championships on Monday.

A Japanese team led by Kohei Uchimura, who will seek his third successive world all-around title later this week in Tokyo, won the men's qualifying with a score of 364.291 points to secure their spot at the 2012 Games.

The United States trailed Japan on 361.583 with Olympic champions China third on 359.126, the first time since 2004 they have qualified below first in a major competition.

Britain's men could finish only 10th after poor high bar performances and must now try to qualify at the Olympic test event in London in January, cutting into valuable preparation time for the Games.

The Britons, who had high hopes of taking a full men's team to a Games for the first time since 1992 after coming seventh in last year's worlds, failed to match their female counterparts who booked their Olympic spot at the weekend.

"This was a very disappointing day," British performance director Tim Jones said. "We did not expect to make so many mistakes on high bar.

"However, our gymnasts are a talented group who will rise to the challenge of qualifying for the Olympic Games at the second opportunity in January."

Scoring starts from scratch in Wednesday's team finals, when three gymnasts compete on each apparatus with all three scores counting.