Top seeds Australia will be based in St Kitts and Nevis in a Group One also featuring two qualifiers from July's ICC Trophy tournament in Ireland.

India, beaten finalists in South Africa in 2003, are in the Trinidad and Tobago-based Group Two along with Sri Lanka and Bangladesh.

Meanwhile hosts West Indies, winners of last year's ICC Champions Trophy one-day tournament in England, will begin their campaign in Jamaica in a Group Four also featuring Pakistan and Zimbabwe.

New Zealand and England are in Group Three, situated in St Lucia, along with shock 2003 semi-finalists Kenya.

In all, eight venues in the Caribbean will be used for the ninth World Cup which will take place during February and March 2007.

The tournament will involve a record 16 teams with five nations from outside the international elite qualifying from the ICC Trophy.

Teams will initially be split into four groups of four, contesting a round robin group stage, with the top two teams from each group progressing to the Super Eight stage.

In the Super Eights, each team will play against every other team it has not already played. The result of the game between the two leading teams in the group stage will be carried forward. The top four teams at the end of the Super Eights will qualify for the semi-finals.

ICC chief executive Malcolm Speed said: "Confirmation of the seedings means we can already look forward to a number of mouth-watering clashes in the group stage.

"Host team West Indies against Pakistan looks to be a key game in Group Four while the presence of India, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh in Group Two, allied to the Asian cultural influence in Trinidad and Tobago, will make for a wonderful atmosphere and some compelling cricket."

Australia, England, India and West Indies -- the four teams reckoned to have the greatest commercial and spectator pulling power -- were pre-seeded into separate groups in July 2004.

Subject to this pre-seeding, the 11 teams with One-Day International status have been seeded in the four groups according to their official position in the ICC ODI Championship table as of April 1, 2005.

Tournament dates and a full fixture schedule are due to be announced after the completion of the ICC Trophy in mid-July

GROUPS AND VENUES
Group One (st. Kitts & Nevis):
Australia (1), South Africa (5), ICC Trophy (1), ICC Trophy (5)

Group Two (Trinidad & Tobago):
Sri Lanka (2), India (8), Bangladesh (11), ICC Trophy (4)

Group Three (St. Lucia):
New Zealand (3), England (7), Kenya (10), ICC Trophy (3)

Group Four (Jamaica):
Pakistan (4), West Indies (6), Zimbabwe (9), ICC Trophy (2)

( ) indicates seedings