So soon

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Holders Egypt will start the defence of their Africa Cup of Nations title against Burundi in Cairo in September. The winners of the 25th edition in Egypt three weeks ago were handed a relatively easy passage through to the 2008 finals in Ghana after being paired with Botswana, Burundi and Mauritania in their qualifying group.

The draw for the 2008 tournament was released by the Confederation of African Football (CAF) in Cairo last week on Thursday.

The Ivory Coast, runner-up at Egypt 2006, are in Group One with Gabon, Madagascar and Djibouti, while bronze medallists Nigeria are in Group Three with Lesotho, Uganda and Niger. The opening round of group matches are to be played between 1-3 September, with the final round of games ending between 7-9 September 2007.

Forty-seven countries will compete in 12 groups to qualify for 15 out of the 16 places at the 2008 finals. Ghana qualify for the 2008 tournament as hosts.

Automatic qualification is guaranteed to the team that tops each group, while the top three runners-up in the groups consisting of four teams will join them. This means that only one team has the chance of qualifying from Group 12, which has just three teams -- Morocco, Zimbabwe and Malawi.

Group One

Gabon, Madagascar, Djibouti, Ivory Coast.

Group Two

Mauritania, Botswana, Egypt, Burundi.

Group Three

Uganda, Lesotho, Nigeria, Niger.

Group Four

Sudan, Seychelles, Mauritius, Tunisia.

Group Five

Rwanda, Cameroon, Equatorial Guinea, Liberia.

Group Six

Swaziland, Angola, Kenya, Eritrea.

Group Seven

Tanzania, Burkina Faso, Senegal, Mozambique.

Group Eight

Guinea, Algeria, Gambia, Cape Verde.

Group Nine

Sierra Leone, Mali, Togo, Benin.

Group 10

Ethiopia, Libya, DR Congo, Namibia.

Group 11

South Africa, Congo, Chad, Zambia.

Group 12

Morocco, Malawi, Zimbabwe.