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Newly crowned European champions Spain have climbed to the top of latest world rankings published by world soccer's governing body FIFA on Wednesday.

It is the first time since the introduction of the rankings in 1992 that Spain, who were rated fourth last month, have been listed as the world's best team.

• Madrid celebrates Euro reign | Spain shed under achievers tag

The ranking system is based on international results over the past four years with more points awarded for wins in major tournaments.

Germany [Images], losers of Sunday's Euro 2008 [Images] final, climbed two places to third position behind Italy [Images], who rose one spot despite going out of the tournament at the quarter-final stage.

A look at the top 50 teams:

Ranking	Team	Points
1	Spain	1557
2	Italy	1404
3	Germany	1364
4	Brazil [Images]	1344
5	Netherlands	1299
6	Argentina	1298
7	Croatia	1282
8	Czech Republic	1146
9	Portugal	1104
10	France [Images]	1053
11	Russia [Images]	1023
12	Romania	1021
13	Cameroon	1011
14	Turkey	1010
15	England [Images]	1003
16	Scotland	988
17	Bulgaria	930
18	Greece	911
19	Mexico	906
20	Ghana	885
21	Israel	876
22	Uruguay	870
23	Colombia	869
24	Egypt	842
25	Paraguay	832
26	Sweden	801
26	Nigeria	801
28	C�te d'Ivoire	790
29	Ukraine	786
30	USA	780
31	Norway	778
32	Poland	773
33	Northern Ireland	750
34	Japan [Images]	745
35	Serbia	740
36	Denmark	722
37	Morocco	689
37	Iran	689
39	Guinea	670
40	Australia	668
41	Republic of Ireland	666
42	Senegal	658
43	Chile	654
44	Finland	653
45	Switzerland [Images]	645
46	Belgium	637
47	Tunisia	629
48	Honduras	624
49	Saudi Arabia	623
50	Moldova	622