Midfielder Ballack, criticised for below-par performances for Bayern Munich this season, shone throughout Germany's first outing since their embarrassing 5-1 defeat by Romania last month in Bucharest.

"That was important," said Ballack. "Even against such opponents scoring seven goals is an achievement."

Defender Jens Nowotny, midfielder Torsten Frings and striker Fredi Bobic also contributed goals in a convincing performance against opponents lying outside the top 100 in the world rankings.

The 2002 World Cup finalists, who have struggled lately, need to be tested against tougher opposition but nevertheless reminded on Thursday they should never be ruled out of contention for a major tournament.

"You need games like this to build confidence," said Germany coach Rudi Voeller. "The way we played was satisfying but we are not getting carried away."

There was some bad news for Voeller when midfielder Paul Freier had to be subsituted in the second half with suspected damaged knee ligaments. The injury makes the VfL Bochum player doubtful for Euro 2004 in Portugal, which starts on June 12.

"Further tests will be conducted tomorrow (Friday) to determine how serious the injury is," Voeller said.

Malta played the last 12 minutes with 10 men after goalkeeper Mario Muscat was sent off for bringing down Germany striker Miroslav Klose outside the box.

Ballack opened the scoring with a low left-foot drive 15 minutes into the match, then doubled the lead two minutes later with a header from a Philipp Lahm cross.

Nowotny scored his first goal for Germany, following up after a blunder by Muscat on 33 minutes.

Frings made it 4-0 at halftime by flicking the ball over Muscat three minutes from the break.

Two headed goals from Ballack followed after the interval before Bobic completed the rout in added time, also with a header.

Germany play Switzerland on June 2 in Basel and Hungary on June 6 in Kaiserslautern before heading for Portugal.

The three-times world and European champions are in Euro 2004 Group D along with the Czech Republic, the Netherlands and Latvia.