Egypt have lost their supremacy over Arab teams for the first time in 16 months in the monthly Fifa ranking released by the football governing body for national teams.
The African champions slipped one place to lie 39th, leapfrogged by North African rivals Morocco, who jumped 12 places to 35th spot.
Egypt s slide was largely affected by a disappointing 1-1 draw at Mauritania in the African Nations Cup qualifiers, whereas the Moroccans beat Zimbabwe 2-0.
At the top, world champions Italy remained in charge of the table after two straight away wins in the Euro 2008 qualifiers against Faroe Islands and Lithuania.
France s back-to-back wins against Ukraine and Georgia, led them to second spot at the expense of Brazil, who registered two friendly draws at Turkey and England.
The biggest move came from European minnows Armenia, who jumped 48 spots to 80th after stunning Group A leaders Poland with a 1-0 victory in the Euro qualifiers.
The biggest losers were New Zealand, who went down 27 places to lie 154th.
Top 10 teams:
1. Italy2. France3. Brazil4. Germany5. Argentina6. Portugal7. Spain8. England9. Holland10. Czech Republic
Top 5 Arab teams:
35. Morocco39. Egypt45. Tunisia62. Saudi Arabia67. Algeria
Top 5 African teams
14. Cameroon19. Ghana20. Ivory Coast32. Nigeria35. Morocco
