General Electric has topped the Fortune magazine "America's most admired companies 2006" list, the publication has announced.

The US industrial giant has now topped the prestigious list for five out of the last eight years.

Memphis-based FedEx was ranked second, followed by Southwest Airlines at number three, Proctor & Gamble at four, and Starbucks at five.

Rounding out the top ten were Johnson & Johnson, Berkshire Hathaway, Dell, Toyota Motor and Microsoft.

According to the magazine, the one thing that all the most admired companies have in common is their ability to change with the times.

To create the list, approximately 10,000 executives, directors and securities analysts from 70 industries selected the companies they admire the most.

Fortune based its rankings on eight key attributes of reputation, including innovation, employee talent, use of corporate assets, social responsibility, quality of management and financial soundness.

Steve Jobs' Apple was placed 11th, while Wal-Mart, the world's largest retailer, ranked 12th.

Exxon Mobil, the world's largest energy producer, failed to make the top twenty despite topping five of the eight categories.

Other recognized companies that ranked outside the top twenty included mobile phone giant Motorola and soft drinks company Coca Cola.

General Electric also topped Fortune's global list of admired companies, beating Toyota Motor into first place.

Not surprisingly, Apple was ranked the most admired company for innovation, up from number three a year ago.

Excluding losses from its discontinued insurance business, GE posted record profits of $18.3bn in 2005, up 12 per cent on the previous year.

Full-year revenues from continuing operations were also a record $149.7bn, an 11 per cent increase on 2004.

In the last three months of 2005, GE incurred $2.7bn of losses from its former insurance arm, dragging total profits down by a whopping 46 per cent.

Looking ahead, the company said they were very positive about 2006.

"Looking into 2006, the current economic environment remains positive and is in line with our expectations," said General Electric chief executive Jeff Immelt.