Four-times African champions - Ghana - who failed to qualify from the group stages, will be missing when the African Cup of Nations tournament kicks off today, Saturday.

The 24th biennial tournament is being held in Tunisia for the third time and includes the top 16 teams in the continent.

The tournament gets under way with a colourful opening ceremony at 1300 GMT.

The first game sees the host nation take on newcomers Rwanda (the team that eliminated Ghana) in the Rades stadium on the outskirts of the capital Tunis at 1830 GMT.

The African Cup of Nations runs from January 24th to February 14. The tournament, which takes place every two years, is composed of Africa's 16 strongest soccer teams and has given rise to excitement across the continent.

Cameroon Tipped

Cameroon are favourites to win a third successive title despite underperforming at the last World Cup and the fact that they will be without several key stars from the team that beat Senegal in the final two years ago.

The Indomitable Lions are the undisputed kings of Africa but failed to get past a first round group that included Saudi Arabia and Republic of Ireland at the 2002 World Cup.

The flop at the World Cup sparked off a nation-wide clamour for German coach Winfried Schafer to be fired.
Schafer's critics say he easily bows to the wishes of the country's officials and since he was contracted in 2001, he has spent very little time in the country, preferring to stay put in Europe to monitor the team.
But the embattled coach is still in charge and Cameroon have since bounced back by going all the way to the final of the Confederations Cup last July in France, where they only lost narrowly to the hosts and European champions.
Their marvellous cup run in France, though, was overshadowed by the death of Marc-Vivien Foe during the semi-final against Colombia.
Foe was the heart and soul of an uncompromising Cameroon engine-room and will be sorely missed as will other key players from the last African Cup in Mali 2002 - namely goalkeeper Alioum Boukar, Raymond Kalla, Pierre Wome and Lauren.
Kalla, a big, strong defender from the Bundesliga side VfL Bochum, and Arsenal ace Lauren quit international football after the World Cup while defender Wome has fallen out of favour with the authorities here.
The reigning champions have since unearthed some real gems - Paris Saint-Germain midfielder Modeste Mbami shone at the Confederations Cup; 19-year-old goalkeeper Carlos Kameni, from the Olympic gold-winning team, has taken over as the country's number one while striker Mohamadou Idrissou from German team Hannover 96 is now part of the squad.
"We have built a new young team which has a lot of force, ambition and hope," said Schafer.
"We are positive because there is now discipline not just with the team but also with the administration and the organization."
Since beating a young Nigerian team 3-1 in the 1984 Nations Cup final in Abidjan, Cameroon have put together an impressive record winning three other African Nations Cup titles to match Egypt and Ghana, the only other four-time champions.
They are currently ranked number 14 in the world by FIFA to again underline the giant strides they have achieved since Roger Milla and company went as far as the last eight at the World Cup in 1990.
But they are not unbeatable and last year they fell to Tunisia 1-0 and Ivory Coast 3-0 in friendlies leading to the exit of assistant coaches Thomas Nkono and Joseph Omag.
Scoring goals has been a problem for Cameroon under Schafer and it was therefore a big shock when he initially left out the country's top marksman Patrick Mboma.
The much-travelled Mboma is only back in the team after the intervention of President Paul Biya and together with hot favourite for the 2003 African Footballer of the Year award, Samuel Eto'o, should recreate the form that won him the biggest individual accolade on the continent four years ago.
However, in-fighting and complacency could undo their hopes.
Factions in the team are believed to have forced Lauren to quit international football while both Mboma and Eto'o have been forced to play down stories of a rivalry between them.
Cameroon kick off their Tunisian campaign on January 25 against Algeria in Sousse.
The two teams last clashed at the 2000 edition of the championship with the Lions winning 2-1 in the quarter-finals.
They are expected to qualify easily from Group C, which also contains Egypt and debutants Zimbabwe.