"Adidas is the first of the six FIFA exclusive partners to sign today for the period 2007-to-2014," FIFA president Joseph Blatter said at a ceremony in Zurich, where the organisation is headquartered.

The names of the other five parteners will be announced during the first half of the year.

The contract with Adidas is valued at 351 million dollars (270 million euros), with the German sports giant paying 215 million dollars in cash and 136 million dollars in goods such as team kits.

In return, Adidas will have enlarged licensing rights related to World Cup events, including common marketing programmes, Internet cooperation and priority access to television advertisement.

The head of Adidas, Herbert Hainer, said that his firm's sales related to football products continued to improve.

He forecast revenues in this sector of 900 million euros (1.1 billion dollars) in 2005 and a figure of more than one billion euros the following year when the World Cup is due to take place in Germany.