European champions Spain remained top of the world soccer rankings for a fourth straight month on Wednesday after extending their lead over world champions Italy [ Images ].

- Images: Dempo edged out due to late goal

Indian climbed three places to be ranked 148 on the FIFA [ Images ] charts.

World Cup qualifying wins over Armenia and Bosnia were enough to keep Vicente Del Bosque's [ Images ] side comfortably clear of the Italians, who also enjoyed qualifying victories over Georgia and Cyprus in the past month.

Brazil [ Images ] climbed above the Netherlands and Croatia [ Images ] into fourth place off the back of their World Cup qualifying draw with Bolivia and away win over Chile.

Scotland's hopes of leapfrogging traditional rivals England [ Images ], however, evaporated following a shock 1-0 defeat in Macedonia.

After suffering the largest drop of points in this month's rankings, Scotland fell 10 places, to 26th while England's win over Croatia helped Fabio Capello's [ Images ] team climb one spot to 14th.

FIFA WORLD RANKINGS (previous position in brackets):

1. (1) Spain
2. (2) Italy
3. (3) Germany [ Images ]
4. (6) Brazil
5. (4) Netherlands
6. (5) Croatia
7. (7) Argentina
8. (8) Czech Republic
9. (12) Russia [ Images ]
10. (9) Portugal
*148 (151) India [ Images ]

India: Highest FIFA ranking: 94 (February 1996)
Lowest FIFA ranking: 165 (March 2007)