Germany named six strikers but Italy dropped two as some of the leading World Cup contenders made late decisions for their squads on Tuesday, only hours before the deadline.

England dropped Theo Walcott but kept injured Gareth Barry, while host South Africa left all-time top scorer Benni McCarthy out of its squad.

Germany, who will face Australia in their first match, promised to take an attack-minded squad and their only late change was to take out 23-year-old defender Andreas Beck. That meant the Germans have retained Bayern Munich strikers Mario Gomez, Miroslav Klose and Thomas Mueller plus Cacau, Stefan Kiessling and Lukas Podolski to give them plenty of options in attack.

Serbia, also fellow group opponents of Australia, have cut Vojvodina Novi Sad goalkeeper Zeljko Brkic from its final World Cup squad.

Coach Antic took four goalkeepers to a training camp in Austria but decided to leave Brkic out of the 23-man squad that will travel to the tournament in South Africa.

"I had to leave one player out and such a decision is never easy to make. I told Zeljko that being in the training camp should be a stimulus for his career and that I still will count on him," Antic told reporters on Tuesday, according to Tanjug news agency.

Goalkeeping is considered to be one of Serbia's weak points.

Italy coach Marcello Lippi, who guided the team to its fourth World Cup triumph in Berlin four years ago, had to cut five players from its squad and opted to leave out Giuseppe Rossi and Marco Borriello. That leaves him with five forwards - Antonio Di Natale, Alberto Gilardino, Vincenzo Iaquinta, Giampaolo Pazzini and Fabio Quagliarella - as Italy bids to become the first team to successfully defend the title since Brazil in 1958 and '62.

Nine players remain from the team that won the World Cup four years ago in Germany: Gianluigi Buffon, Fabio Cannavaro, Gianluca Zambrotta, Mauro Camoranesi, Daniele De Rossi, Gennaro Gattuso, Andrea Pirlo, Alberto Gilardino and Vincenzo Iaquinta.

Four years after former coach Sven-Goran Eriksson took Walcott as a 17-year-old to the World Cup in Germany but never used him, Fabio Capello decided not to take the Arsenal winger to South Africa.

Walcott has struggled with injury and form this season and, even with David Beckham out with a partially torn Achilles tendon, Capello preferred to summon Joe Cole and Shaun Wright-Phillips.

Barry has been sidelined since May 5 with ankle ligament damage and Capello gave him until a fitness check on Tuesday before deciding to take the Manchester City midfielder. Barry now has 10 more days to get fit for England's first group game, against the United States.

The other six players to miss out on England selection were Darren Bent, Tom Huddlestone, Adam Johnson, Scott Parker, Michael Dawson and Leighton Baines.

South Africa was widely expected not to include McCarthy.

The 32-year-old striker, who has scored 32 goals in 78 games for South Africa, has struggled with fitness and form all season while playing in England for Blackburn and then West Ham.

"It was a sad thing to have to split apart our family," coach Carlos Alberto Parreira told a news conference as he announced the six players who will not play in the first World Cup to be staged in Africa.

"But I told them, 'Put your heads up, life goes on. All of you deserve to be here'. Unfortunately we have to obey FIFA rules and we can only name 23."

Ivory Coast coach Eriksson trimmed five players from his provisional squad but still included six strikers.

Chelsea duo Didier Drogba and Salomon Kalou are likely to lead the attack but the Ivorians are in a tough group, alongside five-time champion Brazil, Portugal and North Korea.

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