$re = '/[A-Z\'\- ]+ (\([A-Z\'-]{2}\))/m';
$str = 'AFGHANISTAN (AF)
LAND ISLANDS (AX)
ALBANIA (AL)
ALGERIA (DZ)
AMERICAN SAMOA (AS)
ANDORRA (AD)
ANGOLA (AO)';
$subst = "$1";
$result = preg_replace($re, $subst, $str);
echo "The result of the substitution is ".$result;
Please keep in mind that these code samples are automatically generated and are not guaranteed to work. If you find any syntax errors, feel free to submit a bug report. For a full regex reference for PHP, please visit: http://php.net/manual/en/ref.pcre.php