Jacquelin, who had the sole lead from start to finish, shot a final round of 73 to hold off second-placed Soren Kjeldsen ovf Denmark, with Scotland's Simon Yates in a tie for third with fellow Asian Tour regular Scott Hend of Australia.

World Number Five Ernie Els finished joint fifth with fellow South African Richard Sterne, last week's winner Markus Brier of Austria and Korea's Lee Sung, on 282.

"This is a fantastic moment," said an over-the-moon Jacquelin of his second European Tour victory.

"It is difficult to take the lead in the first round and keep it to the last.

"It was more difficult the last four or five holes. When you are in a position to win it is always difficult to finish but to be a winner you have to finish. I am really happy. It is my second win so it is not a surprise any more."

Leading by one at the start of the day, Jaquelin tightened his grip on the title after three birdies on the front nine saw the Frenchman move to 14-under par, four strokes ahead of Kjeldsen.

But as the forecasted rain started to fall on the back nine and scoring proved a challenge, bogeys at the 13th, 14th, 17th and 18th saw the Frenchman eventually triumph, but by a much smaller margin than had looked likely at one stage.

"I had the chance to start pretty well," he said looking back at his final round 73.

"This morning was calm and we had a lot of chances on the front nine and that is what I did. I was three under after nine and I was pretty confident starting the last nine.

"Then the wind picked up and the rain came and it was tough from the 12th to the 18th. My shots were not so good so I played for the good side of the green to try and save par," he said.

It was enough to clinch victory.

For Yates, though, a late double bogey at the last cost him sole possession of second place.

The Scot, who had shot a 64 yesterday to haul himself into contention, had gone out in 37 but a birdie at the 14th had seen him return to level for the day before the 37-year-old missed a short putt on the 18th green to eventually finish seven under par after recording a final round 74.

Colin Montgomerie's bid fell apart on the final day as a bogey at the 10th and double-bogey at the 12th saw the Scot plummet down the leaderboard after he reached the turn in 38 and he eventually finished on three under par after a disappointing round of 77.

Els, the highest-ranked player in the BMW Asian Open this week, was never able to mount the charge he had hoped for and suffered a three-putt bogey on the second hole en route to a 72.

"I hit the ball from tee to green pretty well but my putter let me down most of the week.

"I had a good first nine holes of the tournament with good putting and yesterday evening as well, but for the rest of it, my putting hasn't been good.

"Today I needed to get off to a good start but unfortunately I three putted the second hole," said the disappointed winner of the 2005 BMW Asian Open.

Graeme McDowell picked up early birdies at the second, seventh and ninth holes to go out in 33, but dropped shots at the 12th and the last saw the Northern Irishman pegged back to five under par after carding a 71.

Simon Dyson also suffered a poor finish to his final 18 holes as consecutive bogeys at the last two holes saw the 29-year-old finish the tournament at four under par after a closing round of 74.

ALL THE FINAL ROUND SCORES

(Gbr & Irl unless stated, Par 72)

278 Raphael Jacquelin (Fra) 66 69 70 73

280 Soren Kjeldsen (Den) 67 72 68 73

281 Simon Yates 74 69 64 74, Scott Hend (Aus) 69 70 67 75

282 Richard Sterne (Rsa) 70 74 69 69, Ernie Els (Rsa) 71 71 68 72, Sung-man Lee (Kor) 68 70 71 73, Markus Brier (Aut) 71 69 68 74

283 Graeme McDowell 73 70 69 71

284 Kane Webber (Aus) 71 73 69 71, Miguel Angel Jimenez (Spa) 70 69 72 73, Andrew McLardy (Rsa) 72 70 67 75, Simon Dyson 70 70 70 74, Joakim Backstrom (Swe) 70 69 68 77

285 Retief Goosen (Rsa) 71 74 69 71, Scott Barr (Aus) 71 70 72 72, Peter O'Malley (Aus) 73 72 68 72, Colin Montgomerie 69 70 69 77

286 Jason Knutzon (USA) 75 70 70 71, James Kingston (Rsa) 74 71 71 70, Tony Carolan (Aus) 69 74 69 74, David Bransdon (Aus) 76 68 68 74, Prayad Marksaeng (Tha) 72 69 70 75, Adam Blyth (Aus) 71 73 67 75, Soren Hansen (Den) 71 70 67 78

287 Robert-Jan Derksen (Ned) 74 72 69 72, David Griffiths 73 69 73 72, Garry Houston 71 72 72 72, Peter Hanson (Swe) 69 71 74 73, Matthew Millar (Aus) 73 70 71 73, Damien McGrane 70 73 69 75, Christian Cevaer (Fra) 71 70 69 77

288 Gregory Havret (Fra) 68 75 72 73, Christian Nilsson (Swe) 71 73 73 71, Andres Romero (Arg) 75 70 66 77, Shaun P Webster 72 74 70 72

289 Wen-chong Liang (Chn) 72 74 69 74, Mark Pilkington 71 72 70 76, Keith Horne (Rsa) 73 69 70 77, Frankie Minoza (Phi) 75 71 70 73, Jarmo Sandelin (Swe) 73 70 75 71, Brett Rumford (Aus) 75 69 75 70

290 Simon Wakefield 72 70 72 76, Kyron Sullivan 75 66 72 77

291 Adam Le Vesconte (Aus) 72 71 72 76, Jean-Francois Luquin (Fra) 71 74 71 75, Ricardo Gonzalez (Arg) 72 73 72 74, Maradan Mamat (Sin) 72 73 73 73

292 Marcel Siem (Ger) 72 69 75 76, Juvic Pagunsan (Phi) 73 71 75 73

293 Keng-chi Lin (Tpe) 73 71 72 77, Gary Murphy 74 72 66 81, Yasin Ali 74 72 71 76, Gonzalo Fernandez-Castano (Spa) 73 72 77 71

294 Edward Michaels (USA) 74 72 71 77, Stephen Gallacher 72 73 74 75, Edward Loar (USA) 70 75 74 75

295 Ghaurev Ghei (Ind) 75 70 73 77, Peter Lawrie 75 71 72 77, Marcus Both (Aus) 71 74 74 76

296 Chris Rodgers 73 71 75 77, Thaworn Wiratchant (Tha) 72 73 74 77, Wen-tang Lin (Chn) 73 73 73 77

297 Gavin Flint (Aus) 68 73 76 80

298 Jun-won Park (Kor) 69 77 72 80, Sven Struver (Ger) 72 72 75 79, Simon Hurd 74 73 74 78

300 Wen-hong Lin (Tpe) 69 76 72 83

301 Lian-wei Zhiang (Chn) 73 73 78 77

(x) denotes amateurs