Set a modest 129 to win, after Australia made 387 following-on, England collapsed to 57 for four as legendary leg-spinner Warne took three wickets for seven runs in 29 balls.

That soon became 116 for seven before Ashley Giles (seven not out) and Matthew Hoggard (eight not out) saw England home, with Giles clipping Warne leg-side for the winning runs.

Warne, who bowled unchan-ged, finished with four for 31 from 13.5 overs while Brett Lee finished with 3-51.

Victory, with more than a day to spare, left England ahead in the five-match encounter with just next month's final Test at The Oval to come and meant they'd ended a run of eight successive series defeats against Australia.

But Australia could still retain the Ashes with a win in London.

"There were plenty of nerves in the dressing room," admitted England skipper Michael Vaughan.

"It was an epic match and it shows what this series has been all about. We managed to get over the finish line and now we have to make sure we go to The Oval in our best form.

"I'm sure that, like the three previous matches, it will be a nailbiting affair."

Australian skipper Ricky Ponting admitted that his side have a lot of work to do despite the fine efforts of Warne and Lee on Sunday.

"We have a lot of work to do and we have to improve our batting. We are just staying in the game and we hope to rectify that next time.

"We had our backs against the wall and we just couldn't get the wickets we needed."

England, whose first innings total of 477 was built around a sixth-wicket stand of 177 between man of the match Andrew Flintoff and Geraint Jones, saw the duo take them close to the winning post before Flintoff was bowled by a superb Lee delivery for 26.

At 111 for six, England were still far from home and there was another twist in the tail when Jones, in a moment of rashness, tried to hit Warne over the top only to hole out to Michael Kasprowicz at mid-off for three.

That left England still a tantalising 13 runs short of their target.

Then a no-ball from Lee left England 10 shy.

Hoggard, to the delight of the capacity crowd, then struck a Lee full toss to the cover boundary to leave England four away before Giles finished the job.

England, who last won an Ashes series in 1986-87, were facing an attack minus fast bowler Glenn McGrath, missing from this match with a right elbow injury.

And with Australia captain Ricky Ponting attacking England, whose first innings featured Flintoff's maiden Ashes hundred of 102, took 19 runs off Kasprowicz's first two overs.