Play-offs were scrapped for the Euro 2008 qualification campaign with the two top teams in seven groups making it to the finals along with joint hosts Austria and Switzerland.
The World cup will still feature play offs though but with just 13 places on offer for European sides at the 2010 World Cup finals play-offs will return to Uefa's international schedule in 2009.
The 53 European nations will be divided into eight groups of six sides and one group containing five teams.
The nine winners of their groups will automatically qualify before the records of the worst sides in the eight six-team groups are discarded so that the best eight best runners-up in the nine groups can be decided. Those eight sides will be drawn in four play-off fixtures.
Platini who replaced Lennart Johansson as Uefa president earlier in the year, said: "It's a good compromise solution, because I wasn't really happy with the format for the last qualifying competition with groups of seven and eight teams."