Wal-Mart Stores Inc. retained its top position in Fortune Magazine's 2005 ranking of the 500 largest publicly traded US companies, according to the latest annual rankings released by the magazine on Monday.

The annual ranking showed that Wal-Mart, with sales of more than 288.2 billion dollars in 2004, retained its No. 1 position on the Fortune 500 for the fourth straight year. The company's sales were up about 11 percent on 2003.

Exxon Mobil Corp. ranked second once again with 270.772 billion dollars in sales and automakers General Motor Corp. and Ford Motor Corp. ranked No. 3 and No. 4 respectively. General Electric Co. came in fifth with sales of 152.363 billion dollars last year followed by oil companies ChevronTexaco Corp. and ConocoPhillips. Citigroup Inc. ranked the eighth with sales of 108.276 billion dollars.

American International Group Inc., which is now facing a government probe for improper accounting, edged up to No. 9 in this year's ranking from No. 10 in the last ranking with sales of 98.610 billion in 2004. The International Business Machines Corp. (IBM), which ranked No. 9 last year, slipped to No. 10 with 96.293 billion in sales.

Fortune magazine, owned by Time Warner Inc., first published the sales rankings in 1954 and only Wal-Mart, General Motors Corp. and Exxon Mobil have topped the lists since then. The 2005 rankings are included in the edition of Fortune Magazine arriving at newsstands on April 11.