Earlier China beat Qatar 59-44 in the men's basketball final for the only other gold contested on the last day of the Doha Games, which has been widely hailed as a "miracle" and the "best ever Asian Games".

An inadvertent header by Mohammed Bilal Rajab in the 61st minute turned out to be the winner, giving Qatar a ninth gold in Doha and its first soccer medal at the Asian Games.

Iraq's giant-killing run, which had brought down Uzbekistan and South Korea, ended in the packed 40,000-seat Al-Sadd Stadium. The war-torn country's first appearance at the Asian Games in two decades bagged two silvers and one bronze.

Iraq seemed content in the first half to sit back and waited for their chance, which would never come.

Abdulla Majdi Siddiq sent a corner from the left, which brushed another Qatari player at the near post and the deflection caught Rajab on the head and bounced past the Iraqi goalkeeper.

China won its fifth basketball gold medal in six Asian Games, with their only defeat coming in Busan, South Korea, in 2002.

With Yao Ming busy with his NBA duty, former NBA player Wang Zhizhi spearheaded China to a 59-44 win over Qatar.

Wang hit a game-high 28 points for China, while Omar Abdelkader Salem scored a team-high 16 points for Qatar, which reached its first-ever Asiad final under American coach Joey Stiebing.

China's coach Jonas Kazlauskas praised his team.

"We controlled the situation on the court mostly full time. We played good defense and for sure Wang Zhizhi and Yi Jianlian made this win possible," he said.

Yi, a 2.16m NBA prospect, has led China's scoring with an average 16.5 points per game.

Qatari coach Stiebing said he was proud of his players but admitted the Chinese were too strong.

"They were too much for us," he said.

Besides basketball, China is too much for its Asian rivals in many ways.

China, for the seventh straight time, tops the Asian Games medal tally with a whopping sweep of 165 gold, 88 silver and 63 bronze medals.

South Korea once again edged Japan into second place despite trailing the closest rival most of the way.

South Korea garnered 58 golds against Japan's 50.

Kazakhstan defended its fourth position with 23 golds, with Thailand, Iran, Uzbekistan, India, Qatar and Chinese Taipei placed from fifth to 10th.

Thirty-eight countries and regions made it to the medal standings. Seven teams, namely, Cambodia, Bhutan, Brunei, Maldives, Timor Leste, Oman and Palestine, failed to pick a medal.