ZURICH, Sept 5: World and European champions Spain lead the latest FIFA rankings on Wednesday, with European teams holding the top four positions as they prepare to begin qualifying for the 2014 World Cup.

Spain maintains their lead over Germany and England while Portugal leapfrogged South American champions Uruguay into fourth place, the sole change in the top-10. Portugal beat Panama in a friendly last month, and Uruguay drew with France.

Italy are No 6, followed by Argentina and the Netherlands. Croatia and Denmark complete the top 10.World Cup hosts Brazil stayed outside the top ten of the highly questioned ranking system, with Denmark and Greece ahead of the five-time world champions.

The South Americans, who hit an all-time low of 13th last month, climbed one place to 12th thanks to a 3-0 friendly win in Sweden.

But their placing, one below Greece, is still surprisingly low as they have won 10 of their 13 full internationals played in the last year, with their only defeats against Argentina and Mexico during a tour of the United States in June. In May, they outclassed Denmark 3-1 in a friendly.

The biggest jumps in the top 20 were Ecuador and Switzerland, who both went up three places to 17 and 20th respectively.

Ivory Coast lead Africa at No 16, ahead of qualifiers for the 2013 Africa Cup of Nations this weekend. No 21 Mexico are the best in CONCACAF which resumes World Cup qualification on Friday.     Japan lead Asia at No 23.

Rankings: 1. Spain, 2. Germany, 3. England, 4. Portugal (+1), 5. Uruguay (-1), 6. Italy, 7. Argentina, 8. Netherlands, 9. Croatia, 10. Denmark, 11. Greece (+1), 12. Brazil (+1), 13. Russia (-2), 14. Chile (+1), 15. France (-1), 16. Ivory Coast, 17. Ecuador (+3), 18. Sweden (-1), 19. Czech Republic, 20. Switzerland (+3).—Agencies