Ghana could become the first African qualifiers for the 2010 World Cup this weekend while fellow giants Cameroon and Egypt need maximum points to keep alive hopes of reaching South Africa.

The ’Black Stars’ of Ghana will secure a second successive appearance at the international football showpiece if they defeat lowly Sudan at home in Group D and the fixture between Benin and Mali is drawn.

Cameroon, whose five World Cup appearances is an African record, made a disastrous start to the final qualifying phase, taking one point from a possible six and need a win away to shock Group A pacesetters Gabon.

Egypt, winners of the last two African Nations Cup tournaments, are once again struggling in the World Cup and failure to collect three points in Rwanda could virtually terminate hopes of topping Group C.

There are seven other fixtures on Saturday and Sunday in the fourth series of matches as 20 teams split into five groups chase five places beside automatic qualifiers South Africa.

Ghana reached the 2006 tournament in Germany under Ratomir Dujkovic and another Serb coach, Milovan Rajevac, looks set to repeat the feat as the ’Black Stars’ have taken a surprisingly early stranglehold on the mini-league. After labouring to a 1-0 home win over Benin against the background of a bonus dispute, Michael Essien-inspired Ghana travelled to Mali and Sudan and returned with impressive 2-0 triumphs.

Another win over a Sudanese team that has not fulfilled the promise that came with qualification for the 2008 Nations Cup would lift Ghana to 12 points. Mali have four points and Benin three going into their Cotonou fixture and if the West African derby is drawn neither the ’Eagles’ nor the ’Squirrels’ could catch Ghana with two rounds to come in October and November.

A series of shock results sees Gabon lead Group A with six points followed by Togo (four), Morocco (two) and Cameroon (one) with the top and bottom teams having a game in hand.

The Libreville fixture was postponed from June and the delay has aided the ’Indomitable Lions’, regrouping under Frenchman Paul le Guen, whose national coach debut delivered a 2-0 friendly win in Austria last month.

Opposing Le Guen will be another Frenchman, Alain Giresse, who resigned last year after a loss to Cameroon in an African tournament for home-based players only to be persuaded by government officials to carry on.

Egypt have won the Nations Cup a record six times, but qualified for the World Cup only twice, and anything less than victory in Kigali would leave the way clear for Algeria to finish first if they overcome Zambia in Blida. Guided by veteran coach Rabah Saadane, Algeria are three points ahead of Egypt and Zambia and two of their remaining three matches are at home while the ’Pharaohs’ have only one Cairo fixture to come.

Ivory Coast will move within a point of qualification from Group E if they defeat closest challengers Burkina Faso in Abidjan while the winners of the clash between Nigeria and Tunisia in Abuja would be expected to top Group B. A fixture between Emmanual Adebayor-led Togo and Morocco in Lome plus two games between countries already out of the World Cup race - Mozambique and Kenya in Maputo and Malawi and Guinea in Blantyre - complete the line-up.