OSAKA, Japan - Favourites Brazil face Olympic silver medallists Russia in the final of the women's world volleyball championships after they powered through their semi-final rival Serbian.

Brazil's Sheilla Castro (L) spikes the ball past Russia's Ekaterina Gamova during their second round match at the FIVB women's Volleyball World Championship in Osaka, western Japan November 12, 2006. [Reuters]

The Brazilians, gunning for their first ever major title, took advantage of a nervous Serbian outfit for a 25-17, 25-14, 21-25, 25-20 victory.

It was the 10th straight win at this tournament for Brazil who have never won the Olympic, World Cup or world championships before.

In the other semi-final match, Russia trounced defending champions Italy 25-19, 25-16, 25-20.

Russian coach Giovanni Caprara said he was confident heading into the final but conceded Brazil were the favourites, after downing the Europeans in four sets in the earlier stages of the tournament.

"Brazil are the number one team in the world, but we have prepared very well mentally for tomorrow's final. They have won all the matches so far, but we are determined to beat them," said Caprara.

Lioubov Shashkova, who top scored for Russia with 21 points, said an injury to her thigh muscle was now "all right" for the Brazil showdown.

"The loss to Brazil already belongs to the past. We are in our top form right now and we are determined to win. That is the biggest reason why we reached as far as the final," said Shashkova.

"Today, we just tried hard to beat Italy, because Italy won the championships four years ago and we had been full of a feeling that we want to beat them. We played technically very well, too," she added.

Brazilian coach Jose Guimaraes said this was their chance to make history.

"This is our history. I won the Olympic Games with the men's team in 1992. We developed to improve the women's team through a lot of tournaments and learned how we can win," he said.

The Brazilians came into the championships as the favourites after winning their third consecutive and sixth in total Grand Prix in September.

Brazilian captain Helia Souza said Wednesday's win came despite a lapse in concentration in the third set.

"We didn't have difficulty in the first two sets, but we started to make errors in the third set. We were able to concentrate in the fourth set, and that's why we won," said Souza.

"Our goal was to reach the final and we made it. It will be difficult against either Russia or Italy. I just hope we can play as well as we did throughout this tournament," she said.

Serbian captain Vesna Citakovic lamented they could not play their normal game in the first two sets.

"From the third set, we played more freely as we did in the tournament, but in the fourth set, Brazil showed their quality, they showed why they are the best team in the world."

Serbian coach Zoran Teizic agreed.

"What I can say, for sure, is that Brazil is the team that has better quality than the Servian team. Even if we had played our best, I don't think we would have been able to win. We were nervous in the first two sets," he said.