Striker John Aloisi believes the Socceroos' treacherous World Cup qualifying road will make them better prepared than ever should they get to South Africa in 2010.

Australia have been handed arguably their toughest qualifying task in recent campaigns, swapping the tinpot nations of Oceania for Asian Cup champions Iraq, dangerous but underachieving China and potentially hazardous Qatar.

The draw in Durban left Australia in easily the toughest of the five Asian groups, with all four nations ranked in Asia's top 10.

Predictably it has been dubbed the Asian confederation's group of death, with only the top two sides in the group going through to the final stage of Asian qualifying.

But Aloisi, the man whose penalty got the Socceroos to the last World Cup, believes Australia's horror draw could be the making of them this time around in their first attempt to qualify through Asia.

"This is the beauty of being in Asia," he said.

"We are going to play tough games and if we do qualify, which we have to be confident of doing, then we will be better prepared for the World Cup."

Australia's opening Group One match is set to be against Qatar in Melbourne on February 6.

While the rest of the draw has not been officially ratified by the Asian Football Confederation, it is likely to be China away on March 26, Iraq at home on June 7, Iraq away on June 14, away to Qatar on September 6 and finishing with a home match against China on September 10.

The Socceroos are also still without a coach, though China are also in the same boat.

"We hope we will have a coach when we start the campaign in February, but one of our problems (in February) will be the availability of our players that play abroad in Europe," Football Federation Australia technical director Rob Baan said from Durban.

Chinese football bosses described the draw as the worst possible result for their side, still smarting from missing the 2006 World Cup finals and failing at the group stage of this year's Asian Cup.

"The result of the grouping was the worst in the history of the China team. Today's draw was a big shock and upset for our football sector," Chinese football official Wei Shaohui said.

In the other groups, Japan were drawn with Bahrain, Oman and Thailand in Group Two.

South Korea will meet neighbours North Korea, as well as Jordan and Turkmenistan in Group Three.

Group Four includes Saudi Arabia, Uzbekistan, Lebanon and Singapore, while Iran were placed alongside Kuwait, Syria and the United Arab Emirates in Group Five.

The top two teams in each group advance to the final group stage, where they will be split into two groups of five to decide the four teams to gain automatic qualification for South Africa.

The fifth-best team play off against the winner of Oceania - likely to be New Zealand - for the final spot in the 32-team tournament.

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