Curacao booked its first ever World Cup berth while Haiti ended a half-century absence from football's showpiece tournament on a dramatic last day of CONCACAF qualifying on Tuesday.

In Kingston, Curacao held hosts Jamaica to a goalless draw to move one point clear at the top of Group B with 12 points from six games in the final stage of the North America, Central America and Caribbean region's qualifying tournament.

Both sides tried frantically for a winner, producing a combined 29 shots on goal at Independence Park in Jamaica's capital.

The Reggae Boyz were reduced to 10 men when Jon Russell was shown a second yellow card for a bad foul in the 89th minute as Curacao, which has a population of 156,000, held on to become the smallest nation to ever qualify for a World Cup finals.

That distinction was previously held by Iceland, which qualified for the 2018 edition in Russia with a population of just over 350,000.

Haiti, which last featured at the World Cup in 1974, earned an automatic place at next year's tournament in the United States, Mexico and Canada with a 2-0 win over Nicaragua.

Louicius Deedson and Ruben Providence struck first-half goals in Curacao's capital Willemstad, where Haiti has been forced to play home qualifiers due to unrest in the Caribbean nation.

The other CONCACAF team to earn a direct World Cup berth was Panama, which clinched top spot in Group A with a 3-0 home victory over El Salvador.

Cesar Blackman and Eric Davis netted first-half goals for the hosts before Jose Rodriguez put the result beyond doubt with an 85th-minute strike.

Suriname, another team vying for its first World Cup appearance, and Jamaica advanced to the playoffs as the two best second-ranked teams.

Honduras fell short of a playoff spot due to an inferior number of goals scored compared to Suriname while Costa Rica also missed out.