France, the World Cup winners in 1998, remain in second place ahead of another of South America's giants, Argentina. All three teams retained the places they held at this time last year.

Teams having moved up the table since December 2003 include the Czech Republic, who dislodged Spain to take fourth place while the Spaniards drop to fifth, China, Greece and Japan.

Mexico moved up one place to seventh with England going in the other direction down to eighth.

The biggest achiever in the current top ten is Portugal, who moved up eight places to ninth thanks mainly to their performances during their hosting of the 2004 European Championships.

China meanwhile moved up a massive 32 places to 54th, in the process winning the Best Mover award after adding 101 points to their 2003 total.

However because they failed to qualify for the 2006 World Cup finals in Germany, the Asians dropped five places since November this year.

Japan moved up 12 places to 17th while Greece, who stunned a host of more prestigious teams by winning the European Championships, also moved up 12 places to sit in 18th place.

Three other teams have also climbed 30 or more places since December 2003 - Ivory Coast (40th, up 30), Uzbekistan (47th, up 34), and St. Vincent and the Grenadines (137th, up 32).

Another nine teams have gained more than 20 ranks on last year, including Australia (58th, up 24), Libya (61st, up 22), Panama (100th, up 25) and Oceania Nations Cup surprise packages Solomon Islands (130th, up 26).

With 1019 games having already been played this year and close to 30 matches still outstanding (Tiger Cup, Gulf Cup, CECAFA Cup), 2004 may well set a new all-time record (currently 1044 matches in 2000).

The next FIFA World Rankings will be published on 19 January 2005.