WALES captain Gary Speed has issued a World Cup rallying call by claiming: "We can qualify for the finals."

The Newcastle midfielder watched Wales get drawn against England in World Cup 2006 qualifying Group Six in the race to reach Germany.

And the 34-year-old has insisted he has no intention of retiring from international football, with Northern Ireland, Austria, Poland and Azerbaijan also on the menu in World Cup qualifying.

He said: "First of all we must take England out of this equation. Looking at the rest of the group, we have a great chance.

"There is nothing there to be frightened of, and if England do win it, why can't we be runners-up? The rest of the teams are well within us.

"We have just achieved second place in a Euro 2004 group and we would certainly settle for that again in this World Cup qualifier.

"And when it comes to facing England, they will not fancy coming to Cardiff where we can beat anybody with our full team out. Just ask Italy!

"Those two games will be real tough British matches, anything can happen and they will be very much one-off occasions."

Speed takes encouragement from recent performances against Poland and Azerbaijan.

Wales beat Azerbaijan twice in Euro 2004 qualifying, and in qualifying for the last World Cup, drew 0-0 in Warsaw, losing the return 2-1.

Speed added: "We have nothing to fear from those two. We have just beaten Azerbaijan twice and we produced a really great defensive display in Poland a few years back and were unlucky to lose the return.

"As for Austria, we certainly have no reason to fear them either. I am not even looking at the financial situation when I say this is a great group for Wales."

Wales boss Mark Hughes (pictured) was linked with a move into Premiership management after the failed Euro 2004 qualifying effort.

But Speed insists his decision to stay on with his country has been vindicated by yesterday's draw in Frankfurt.

He said: "This is just up Mark's street. He will love this group and love the chance to play England.

"Obviously, we are all delighted he decided to carry on, and this draw is just the incentive he would have been looking for to justify his decision." England boss Sven-Goran Eriksson has tipped Wales and Poland to provide the toughest tests to his side, although he was pleased to miss out on meeting Holland.

He said: "It's absolutely not easy. I saw some of the games Wales played, against Italy, for example, and they did very well. I have to study them all, of course.

"I am very glad that we could avoid Holland. I think England have played against Poland many times in these circumstances and have done well. I think it is a rather good draw. Interesting.

"Poland always have good football players and it's a good team. "Northern Ireland and Wales are interesting."

Eriksson also pointed to Wales' Euro 2004 qualifying campaign which ended in play-off defeat to Russia.

He said: "They are local derbies more or less. Wales could have won the group and it looked like that at one stage.

"I am sure that Wales want to beat England but we want the same." Eriksson was keen to put off talk of the qualifying campaign until after next summer's Euro 2004 finals.

He added: "Before we talk about the World Cup, we need to think about Euro 2004 in the summer.

"It's a lot of time before we meet. It's a long way to go to the World Cup and I think it's difficult to talk about the World Cup today when we have to play the Euro 2004 finals and that's a big challenge.

"In September, we start the campaign for reaching the World Cup."

Meanwhile, ex-Wales boss Bobby Gould hailed it as 'a great draw' but admitted current manager Mark Hughes would be feeling a sense of trepidation now that they are facing the English and Irish.

He said: "There's no doubt Mark Hughes was sitting in that auditorium thinking 'what have we got in front of us, what is coming?'

"It (the England game) will be a massive sell-out. It will give the Football Association of Wales council some revenue to support their programmes."

And, when the dates are finalised for the matches, especially the one against David Beckham and company in Cardiff, the Football Association of Wales can expect to be able to sell the game out many times over as tickets will be like gold dust for that match.