Three extraction methods for aluminium and two for iron were compared with phosphate sorptivity (Bache and Williams index) for 40 tropical and 40 British soil samples. Extractable aluminium was well correlated with phosphate sorptivity in both groups, but extractable iron was well correlated only in British soils. In general methods which extracted more sesquioxides gave higher correlation coefficients. With aluminium, N ammonium acetate (pH 4.8) or 0.1N HCl gave better correlation than N KCl, while with iron dithionitecitrate was better than 0.1N HCl.