The Chinese team, who have fewer matches to play due to their elimination from the World Cup qualifiers, are now 61st in the world.

At 17th, Iran is the top Asian squad, just one spot ahead of Japan.

World Cup champion Brazil continues to top the list, followed by the Czech Republic and Argentina.

FIFA's standings are based on a statistical analysis of countries' results over eight years, weighted according to how recently the matches were played, the strength of the opponents and the importance of each match. 

(CRI June 16, 2005)