The planned new stadium would see the club barely straying from its roots to a site currently used as a car park.

The club unveiled proposals this year to move from their current home to a new 55,000-capacity purpose-built arena on an adjacent site.

Plans include a hotel and conference centre, health facilities and a shopping centre.

Liverpool officials say the favourable result will give the club the impetus to make concrete plans for its financial future.

"We're obviously delighted," Liverpool chief executive Rick Parry told the club's official website.

"It's a combination of three years of a lot of hard work and a vindication and endorsement of the policy we adopted that we had to be very much a part of the community plan.

"I think the outcome will be very exciting, not just for us, but for North Liverpool as a whole."

The club will now make a planning application in the hope of the stadium being ready for the start of the 2005-06 season.

If planning permission is granted, construction is expected to commence late next year.

Liverpool have played at Anfield since their formation in 1892, when arch-rivals Everton left the ground to play at nearby Goodison Park.

The stadium has seen considerable redevelopment in recent years with three stands being built in the past decade.

But despite the improvements, capacity now remains locked at 45,362 with little room for further extension.