To lift the trophy – coach Shakes Mashaba has outlined - Bafana Bafana will have to overcome tough opposition like Nigeria and Morocco in Group D. Benin are regarded as minnows in this group.

But Group D was not the only one to throw heavyweights of African football in the same pool. Defending champions Cameroon, former winners Egypt, Algeria and Zimbabwe make up Group C, which will be equally tough as Group D.

Meanwhile, Hosts Tunisia have been drawn against newcomers Rwanda in a potentially easy opening game of next year's African Nations Cup finals.

Tunisia, top seeds in Group A, will also face the Democratic Republic of Congo and Guinea in their group, based at the new stadium at Rades, on the outskirts of Tunis.

Tunisia were also drawn against the Congolese, then known as Zaire, when they last hosted the Nations Cup finals in 1994, starting the tournament with a supposedly easy game against Mali but losing before crashing out at the first stage.

Morocco, Nigeria and South Africa being drawn in Group D throws together three countries bidding to host the 2010 World Cup.

Nigeria beat South Africa in the semi-finals of the 2000 Nations Cup and disposed of Morocco in the earlier stages of the same tournament.

South Africa's only previous matches against Morocco were victories at the 1998 and 2002 finals in Burkina Faso and Mali.

Morocco and South Africa are the two favourites for the 2010 World Cup bid, to be decided next May.

Holders Cameroon start the defence of their title against Algeria in Sfax on January 25.

Senegal, runners-up at the last finals in Mali in 2002, will be well satisfied to be drawn with Burkina Faso, Mali and Kenya in group B.

There are seven former African champions in the field of 16 - Algeria, Cameroon, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Egypt, Morocco, Nigeria and South Africa.

The top two sides in each group progress to the quarter-finals, with the final due to be played at Rades on February 14.