Forty-seven countries will go into Thursday's qualifying draw for the 2008 African Cup of Nations.
Ghana, hosts of the next tournament, are the only country to automatically qualify for the competition.
The tournament format has not been released by Caf, African football's governing body.
But the qualifiers for the 2008 tournament will start this September.
Djibouti, the tiny East African country, has entered for only the second time.
But five countries - the Central African Republic, Comoros Islands, Guinea Bissau, Sao Tome e Principe and Somalia - will be absent from the qualifying rounds, as they failed to declare their interest in the competition.
Countries that have entered the 2008 Nations Cup draw in Cairo
Algeria, Angola, Benin, Botswana, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Cameroon, Cape Verde Islands, Chad, Congo, Democratic Republic of Congo, Djibouti, Egypt, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Gabon, Gambia, Guinea, Ivory Coast, Kenya, Lesotho, Liberia, Libya, Madagascar, Malawi, Mali, Mauritania, Mauritius, Morocco, Mozambique, Namibia, Niger, Nigeria, Rwanda, Senegal, Seychelles, Sierra Leone, South Africa, Sudan, Swaziland, Tanzania, Togo, Tunisia, Uganda, Zambia, Zimbabwe.