The announcement was made at a press conference at the Football Association's Lancaster Gate headquarters.

Eriksson becomes the first foreigner to take on the job in a major break from tradition by the FA and has an option to stay on for a further two years after 2006.

The 52-year-old Swede has been with Italian giants Lazio for the past three years and will take up the England position full time next July.

His assistant at Lazio, Tord Grip, will join the England set up as chief scout.

Number one

FA chief executive Adam Crozier insisted Eriksson was the only man for the job in their eyes.

"Sven Goran Eriksson was the unanimous choice of our selection team. He is one of the best coaches in the world," said Crozier.

"At no stage did we approach any other manager. He was, and is our number one choice.

The FA hope Eriksson will "manage" England on a part time basis for the World Cup qualifying matches against Finland and Albania next March and Greece in June before taking up the post full time.

Crozier confirmed: "We are very hopeful that we wil be able to manage the team for the World Cup qualfiers in March and June.

"He will work with Peter Taylor and Steve McClaren and ties in to our strategy. He buys in 100% to add strategy of building for the long term and to have an English manager in the long term."

But Lazio spokesman Guido Paglia insisted Eriksson would not be available to England until July.

"Any speculation that Eriksson will leave before then is just unfounded rumour," he said.

Crozier added: "We would like to say a special thank you to president Cragnotti of Lazio. He, and everyone at the club, did everything they possibly could to help us and we are extremely grateful for his support."

Eriksson, who will live in London, did not have to be pressed into accepting the England post during talks in Rome.

"The England job is a huge job and when you go calling with that, I'm not aware that anyone has ever turned it down," added Crozier.

"Sven instantly wanted to do it. He's very excited about it, he believes it's a huge challenge.

"He believes we've under-performed over the past few years and can see a huge potential there not just with the current players but with those of the future."

Crozier concluded: "If someone had said after Kevin's resignation I'd be sitting here three weeks later with a team for the future of Sven-Goran Eriksson, Peter Taylor, Steve McClaren and Brian Kidd, I'd have bitten off their hand."