The African champions moved up from 41st place to 39th after registering a 3-0 win against Mauritania in the African Nation Cup 2008 qualifiers last month.

Egypt remain in regional command of Arab teams with a gap of 5 places over 44th placed Tunisia, but their continental rank comes after Cameroon, Ivory Coast, Nigeria and Ghana.

African giants Cameroon lead the line for the Dark Continent after jumping five spots to lie 13th in the rankings.

At the top, world champions Italy were largely helped with Luca Toni's brace against Scotland in the UEFA Euro 2008 qualifiers to redeem their leadership taking over from Argentina who played no games since March.

England slipped two places to come in 8th after their disappointing 0-0 draw with Euro underdogs Israel.

The biggest leap though came from Liechtenstein who jumped 31 places after they recorded only their 4th ever competitive victory by beating Latvia last month.