Paraguay never let Brazil settle, keeping the visitors' feared trio of Kaka, Ronaldinho and Ronaldo under wraps with a combination of tough marking, determined defending and several slices of luck.

The draw enabled Argentina, 1-0 winners over Ecuador on Tuesday, to stay top of the South American 2006 World Cup qualifying zone table, a point ahead of Paraguay and two ahead of Brazil who are the first world champions to have to qualify.

Venezuela moved to fourth, level on points with Brazil, with a 3-0 win at Uruguay.

Brazil gave as good as they got with midfielder Gilberto Silva and defender Lucio both lucky to stay on the pitch after persistent fouling.

Ronaldo had a quiet game but was himself booked in the 16th minute after an ugly tangle with Paraguay's Delio Toledo, who was also shown the yellow card.

Paraguay stayed second in the South American qualifying group with ten points from five games while Brazil are a further point behind in third place.

"It's not a bad result," Paraguay striker Roque Santa Cruz said. "Brazil are always a very strong team and the main thing is to keep picking up points."

A floodlight failure interrupted the match for nearly half an hour only two minutes after the kickoff. Once play restarted, both teams struggled to create any clear-cut chances.

Both sides won several free kicks in dangerous positions but Francisco Arce's efforts for Paraguay and Ronaldinho's shots for Brazil were all wasted, the latter sending two balls straight into the defensive wall.

Paraguay were lucky not to concede a penalty when Carlos Gamarra appeared to trip Ronaldinho, although the Barcelona player made a meal of the incident.

Ronaldo had a rare chance early in the second half when he burst down the left but his low shot was well saved by Ricardo Tavarelli.

Almost immediately, Bayern Munich striker Santa Cruz had a similar effort saved by Dida at the other end.

Gamarra had another lucky escape when he appeared to bring down Ronaldo but the same player saved Paraguay when he deflected away a Roberto Carlos free kick when it was heading for the bottom corner.

Paraguay nearly snatched an injury time winner when defender Paulo da Silva had a free header from a corner but he failed to make proper contact.

By that stage, with the clock past midnight, both teams seemed happy with the draw.

"We didn't play with our usual style," Brazil coach Carlos Alberto Parreira told reporters.

"We tried too many direct balls instead of passing our way upfield. We needed to be more patient."

Kaka blamed lacked of training time for his side's lacklustre display.

Brazil arrived in Asuncion on Monday and had only one practice before the match at the Defenders of the Chaco stadium.

"You can't expect us to produce the same performances we do with our clubs," he said. "We had one day's training and even that was just half an hour.

"But we felt we could have won if we had created a few more chances."

Gilberto agreed that Brazil failed to produce their best.

"We fell short. We should have passed the ball around," said the Arsenal player.

Parreira, however, said he was still happy with a point which kept his side third in the South American World Cup qualifying group.

"We won a point. And in a World Cup match, that will help us qualify," he said.