ORAN, Algeria, March 27 (Reuters) - French-based striker Mansour Boutabout handed Algeria their first win of the World Cup group qualifiers in a 1-0 victory over Rwanda on Sunday.

The triumph has taken the twice World Cup qualifiers off the

bottom in African zone Group Four and kept alive their slim

hopes of reaching next year's African Nations Cup finals.

Algeria squandered several chances to enjoy a comfortable

win including a first minute opportunity when Rafik Saifi had an

opening to get the hosts off to a perfect start.

But the home team left the pitch at halftime to whistles of

from their own fans, although they were quickly silenced when

Boutabout scored just two minutes after the break following a

run at the Rwanda defence by Nader Belhadj.

Algeria, who have six points from six matches, trail leaders

Nigeria by seven points. Only the group winners qualify for the

2006 World Cup finals in Germany but the first three teams in

each group go to the 2006 African Nations Cup finals in Egypt.