LIMA, March 26 (Xinhua) -- Arturo Woodman, president of the Peruvian Sport's Agency (IPD), on Monday gave a prize of 50,000 U.S. dollars to Peru's under-17 national soccer squad for qualifying for the sport's 2007 World Cup, to be held in South Korea.

    "Just as we are rewarding athletes that win international medals, we want to do the same for Peruvian players who achieved agenuine milestone of qualifying for a World Cup," Woodman said.

    Peru's last World Cup was in 1982 in Spain, where the team was eliminated in the first round after drawing 1-1 with Italy, losing 0-1 to Cameroon, and 1-5 to Poland. In 2004, as host of the under-17 World Cup, Peru qualified automatically only to be eliminated in the first round.

    Woodman said that the prize would be delivered by Alan Garcia, the nation's president, and split equally between all the players,adding that the coaching team, led by manager, Juan Ore, would receive other prizes to motivate them.

    "The IPD is delivering the prize. We have the funds to do so. Atriumph like this one lifts the national spirit (and) the self esteem lost in a sport where we have not achieved good results," Woodman said.

    The nation's sporting press was delighted by the result, headlining with "At last", "After 26 years we are in a World Cup","Our suffering ends; we are World Cup winners again", "I love you Peru", and "Yes we could".

    Peru came top of Group A in the first phase, beating Brazil 2-1,crushing Bolivia 4-1, losing 1-3 to Chile and drawing 0-0 with Ecuador. In the six-way final, Peru was crushed 0-4 by Brazil, and0-3 by Colombia, but drew 2-2 with Ecuador and 1-1 with Argentina.

    Leading players in the team were forward Manco, central defender Duarte, winder Coavoy and striker La Torre.

    In the final, Brazil came top with 13 points, Colombia was second with 10, Argentina third with eight, Peru fourth with five,Venezuela fifth with four and Ecuador last with one point.

    Thanks to the same competition, Peru also qualified for the Pan-American Games in the Brazilian city of Rio de Janeiro.