Big Breakfast presenter Sara Cox is to replace best pal Zoe Ball on Radio 1's Breakfast show, the BBC has announced.

The 25-year-old, who currently presents a slot on Channel 4's The Big Breakfast, will front a revamped show being developed by the station.

"This is big news. It's brilliant to launch a totally new show for Radio 1 as well as filling my best mate's shoes," said Cox.

"I'm ready for this and really excited that the station has taken me to its heart since I joined earlier this year."

She added: "I rang my mum up and she swore - I can't say what she said - she was really pleased."

Radio 1 controller Andy Parfitt said: "Sara is sure to build on our success at breakfast. It'll be the stop-off for young Britain, whether in or out of bed.

"Sara will make the Radio 1 Breakfast Show the place to tune into to find out what's going on.

"Our listeners expect us to do something new. It is going to be a whole new show. Zoe has done a fantastic job and we need to build on that."

Cox will leave her current Radio 1 weekend shows to start work on the new programme, which will also see a high-profile role for The O-Zone presenter Rajesh Mirchandani.

He will join the show to deliver news, weather and information as well as music and entertainment developments. He has also presented Radio 1's entertainment news slot, The Net.

Months of speculation

In September, Zoe Ball announced she will be leaving the top-rated morning show in April 2000 to take an extended break.

The presenter has made no secret of her intention to start a family with husband Norman Cook - better known as the pop star Fatboy Slim. The pair married in August.

The announcement brings to an end months of speculation about a successor to Ball.

Those in the running have included fellow Radio 1 DJ Chris Moyles and Ant and Dec, who present ITV's SM:TV chart show. Cox's Big Breakfast colleague Johnny Vaughan was also reportedly under consideration.

A Radio 1 spokesman said of Moyles: "His show is doing perfectly in the afternoons and his style is perfect for that slot.

"Plus he has said himself that he could not bothered getting up at that time."

Front-runner

Former model Cox has been considered a favourite since she began presenting two weekend Radio 1 shows within days of Ball's decicision to quit.

Cox rose to fame as a presenter on Channel 4's risque Girlie Show, then joined the British arm of music station MTV.

Like Ball, she is linked to a pop star, dancer Leeroy Thornhill from the Prodigy, whom she is due to marry next year.

Her contract with the Big Breakfast is due to run out early next year.

It will be a challenge for her to retain Zoe Ball's massive audience of 6.9 million.

Ball has pulled in hundreds of thousands of new listeners to the show since she began hosting it - at first jointly with Kevin Greening, and then last year, on her own.

The audience had been dropping under their predecessors Mark Radcliffe and Marc "Lard" Riley, who struggled to keep listeners after Chris Evans suddenly quit Radio 1 in January 1997.