De Biasi Albania boss

"His contract will last until November 2013," the Albanian football federation said in a statement adding that De Biasi, 55, will be officially unveiled at a news conference in Tirana next week.

De Biasi - whose last job was three months in charge of Udinese during the 2009-10 season - has coached Italian teams Modena, Brescia and Torino as well as Levante in Spain but this will be his first job as a national team manager.

He was famously sacked by Torino three days before the start of the 2006-07 Serie A season, despite having led the club to promotion in his first campaign in charge.

Albania have been drawn in World Cup qualifying Group E with Norway, Slovenia, Switzerland, Cyprus and Iceland.

The football federation initially said it wanted an Albanian coach after employing a series of foreign managers but talks with former Albania defender Besnik Hasi collapsed.

Albania have never qualified for the European Championship or World Cup.