Britain will open the Group One fixtures with a clash against the Netherlands, and will then take on Lithuania, Turkey, the Czech Republic and Greece in the following days.

The venue for the qualifying tournament is yet to be announced.

The winners of each of the three qualifying groups will then go through to the qualification play-offs, where they will join around 13 other teams and play home and away legs for a place in the final eight who will go through to the World Championship proper, to be staged in China from November 29 to December 13 2009.

After the draw, British Handball's world class performance programme manager Lorraine Brown said: “The women’s competition is always competitive, so regardless of which group we were drawn in we know it’s going to be tough.

“We’re up against it, but we’re optimistic because every time we compete we learn new things and improve, so we’re going into the event very positively, but recognise that it’s going to be tough for us.”