KARACHI, Nov 11: SAF Games champions Pakistan have slipped one place down to number 36 in the latest Asian football rankings issued on Thursday.

According to the world rankings announced by International Football Federation (FIFA) for the month of November, Pakistan are placed behind South Asian rivals Nepal at No. 176 in the world and at No. 36 at the Asian level. Maldives are the best-ranked South Asian team in Asia at No. 26 followed by Sri Lanka (27), India (29) and Bangladesh (33).

North Korea's qualification for the final round of the World Cup 2006 Asian Qualifiers has seen them move up six spots in the FIFA World Ranking.

The North Korean side's 2-1 win over Yemen in Pyongyang helped tThem to reach the final eight of the Asian Qualifiers and also saw them rise significantly in the ranking to 96th, their highest ranking since September 1995.

North Korea's impressive rise was emulated by Maldives, who also went up six spots to their highest ever position of 136th following their stunning 3-0 thumping of Vietnam for their first win of the World Cup qualifiers.

Vietnam's defeat in Male saw them plummet 13 positions to 109th, the most significant drop of the month. Asian Cup quarterfinalists Iraq also fell sharply as they dropped six spots to 45th after their 2-1 loss to Uzbekistan that eliminated them from the qualifiers.

Japan remain Asia's top team after a 1-0 win in Oman that sent Them up to 17th in the world, three spots ahead of Iran, who scored a narrow 3-2 win over Qatar to remain unchanged in 20th spot. Meanwhile, Guam have dropped one spot to 205th and are now the lowest ranked Team in the world.

Given Under are the top ten teams in the world from Asia:

1. Japan (17), 2. Iran (20), 3. South Korea (24), 4. Saudi Arabia (30), 5. Jordan (39), 6. Iraq (45), 7. Bahrain (48), 8. China (49), 9. Uzbekistan (51) 10. Oman (55).-PPI