England cruised to a 4-0 win over Kazakhstan in Almaty to make it six wins out of six in their World Cup qualifying Group Six.

Manchester City's new £12m signing Gareth Barry headed Fabio Capello's men in front five minutes before the break and his former Aston Villa team-mate Emile Heskey doubled the lead on the stroke of half-time following up to slot home after the keeper had palmed out from Steven Gerrard.

Manchester United striker Wayne Rooney scored his sixth goal in qualifying to make it 3-0 with an acrobatic overhead kick on 73 minutes. His initial kneed effort had been spectacularly kept out by the keeper but Rooney reacted quickly to hook home.

Chelsea's Frank Lampard rounded off the scoring from the penalty five minutes later after Heskey had been pulled down. The win leaves England needing two more wins to be sure of qualifying.

However it was not an entirely convincing performance from England who began poorly and survived an Almaty scare in the opening minute.

The hosts caused mayhem in Robert Green's penalty area within seconds of the kick-off, then had a far-post header from Sergey Ostapenko disallowed for offside before England took control.

West Ham United goalkeeper Robert Green kept a clean sheet on his first start for England who will have Barry suspended against Andorra at Wembley on Wednesday night after the midfielder picked up a yellow card. Andorra lost 5-1 in Belarus.

Tottenham Hotspur midfielder Luka Modric scored a 68th-minute equaliser to salvage a 2-2 draw for Croatia at home to the Ukraine, a result which provided a further boost to England's hopes of qualification.

Wolverhampton Wanderers midfielder David Edwards scored the only goal for Wales as they won 1-0 in Azerbaijan. John Toshack's side took the lead three minutes from the break. Farhad Veliyev punched out a cross from Robert Earnshaw, but it hit young debutant Simon Church of Reading and rebounded for Edwards to fire home his second goal for Wales.

Japan beat Uzbekistan 1-0 to become the first country to qualify for the World Cup finals in South Africa and they were quickly followed by Australia who booked their place with a 0-0 draw in Qatar.  Fulham goalkeeper Mark Schwarzer kept a sixth successive clean sheet for the Socceroos aided by Everton's Tim Cahill and Lucas Neill of West Ham United along with Vince Grella of Blackburn Rovers with Richard Garcia of Hull City coming on as a late substitute.

Manchester United's Park Ji-Sung helped South Korea become the third team to qualify for South Africa 2010. They won 2-0 in the United Arab Emirates to reach their seventh successive finals, a record bettered only by Brazil, Germany, Italy, Argentina and Spain.

Holland became the fourth country, and the first from Europe, to qualify for the World Cup finals with a 2-1 victory in Iceland - a 20th consecutive match without defeat. Manchester City midfielder Nigel de Jong set the Dutch on the way putting his side in front after just eight minutes.

The Republic of Ireland boosted their hopes of qualification as they drew 1-1 in Bulgaria. Manchester City defender Richard Dunne put the Irish in front with a free header on 24 minutes. But Dimitar Telkiyski latched onto a long ball and calmly slotted past Shay Given to level five minutes later.

Elsewhere, Sunderland's Carlos Edwards scored the opener for Trinidad and Tobago as they lost 2-3 in their World Cup qualifier against Costa Rica.