The 28-year-old passed a medical on Thursday and will become Eriksson's fourth signing since he took charge at Eastlands once he is granted a work permit.

Eriksson is certain Petrov won't be the last new arrival. He has been given substantial transfer funds by City's new Thai owner Thaksin Shinawatra as he overhauls a squad that struggled in the Premiership last season.

The Swede has already brought in Rolando Bianchi, Geovanni and Gelson Fernandes and is lining up moves for Bayern Munich's Roque Santa Cruz and Racing Santander's Nikola Zigic.

Eriksson has no problem concentrating on non-English talent and said: "I don't think we are finished signing, there will be more new faces coming in different positions, whether they are English or not I can't say.

"I think that the new owner has shown that he means serious busi ness when he says that he wants to build a strong team, which is not fighting at the bottom of the table but at the other end.

"This is one way in which he has shown that, and I'm very happy about it."

Petrov was also wanted by Tottenham and Eriksson praised City's directors for their efforts to land the star and his new teammate Geovanni.

"I'm sure that a lot of clubs wanted both of them and I'm very happy that the board were able to get them. They will do very well for us, I'm sure about that."