This month's FIFA World Ranking is dominated by a raft of FIFA World Cup qualifying matches on various continents and the countless games played in the build-up to EURO 2004 in Portugal.

At the top, Brazil continue to hold a healthy lead over France and Spain thanks to their crucial victory over Argentina.

Mexico (4th, up 2) now head the chasing pack, closely followed by Argentina, the Netherlands and Turkey (all 5th).

However, most of this month's movers come from Oceania, where no fewer than 35 qualifying matches for the 2006 FIFA World Cup have taken place in recent weeks.

Australia (49th, up 40) take a giant leap and return to the top 50 after nearly a year's absence and a lengthy period of inactivity, and despite being eliminated from the FIFA World Cup qualifiers, New Zealand (80th, up 15) also make progress up the ranking.

The Oceanian surprise packages, the Solomon Islands (130th, up 24) and Vanuatu (142nd, up 19), are also on the rise, as are Tahiti, Fiji and Papua New Guinea.

Elsewhere, Chile (65th, up 12) and Peru (72nd, up 9) also take strides up the table. 2006 FIFA World Cup qualifiers are underway in Africa, with Senegal (26th, up 5) and Ivory Coast (69th, up 6) both taking advantage.

Malta has lost two places on the grid and is currently 131st. Ranked 112th, Azerbaijan is the only small European country placed above Malta who succumbed to a heavy 7-0 defeat to Germany in a friendly international match on May 27.

The other European minnows trailing Malta are Faroe Islands (134th, down 3), Kazakhstan (140th, down 4), Andorra (148th, down 2), Liechtenstein (152nd, down 2), Luxembourg (156th, down 1) and San Marino (167th, down 2).

Despite only making their debut in this month's ranking, there is already daylight between FIFA's newest member, New Caledonia (186th, new entry), and the teams at the very foot of the table.