The Queen Mary 2 is expected to come into service in 2004

The 85,000-ton vessel is due to enter service in 2005, and will be the second largest liner Cunard has ever built.

The Queen Victoria will operate cruises from Southampton to the Mediterranean, the Canaries, northern Europe and the Caribbean, joining the QE2 and the Caronia.

It will enter service the year after Cunard's massive new 150,000-ton flagship, the Queen Mary 2.

"New technology"

Pamela Conover, Cunard's president and chief operating officer, said the company was founded soon after Queen Victoria came to the throne.

"Throughout her reign, Cunard built more and even better ships, we embraced radical new technology and we carried more passengers in greater comfort," Ms Conover said.

She added: "Today, with more capacity than we have had for 40 years, Cunard is entering a new phase of expansion."

It will be built at Italy's Fincantieri shipyard near Venice, with her keel scheduled to be laid in July this year.