In a statement to the Stock Exchange, United said they had reached an outline agreement to sign the 18-year-old England forward subject to him passing a medical.

There was no immediate confirmation of the transfer fee, believed to be in the region of 25 million pounds (45 million dollars).

That was the level of the last offer tabled by United on Saturday to see off competition from Newcastle, whose chances of signing Rooney disappeared on Monday when they sacked manager Sir Bobby Robson.

Rooney is currently sidelined as a result of a broken metatarsal bone, which he suffered in England's Euro 2004 quarter-final defeat by Portugal. The injury was not however expected to prevent him from passing the medical.

Presuming there are no last-minute hitches, Rooney will join up with Ruud van Nistelrooy, Louis Saha and Alan Smith to complete a formidable quartet of international strikers at Old Trafford.

Despite his young age, Rooney demonstrated at Euro 2004, where he scored four goals and was England's outstanding player, that he can thrive on football's biggest stage.

Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger has described the teenager as the most gifted English player he has seen and admitted that his arrival at Old Trafford will significantly strengthen United.

Among United diehards, the hope is that Rooney will have the kind of galvanising effect on the rest of the team that Eric Cantona had in the trophy-rich 1990s.

The scale of Rooney's impact will not be clear for some time but it is clear that United are in need of an injection of new talent.

A stuttering start to the season has left Sir Alex Ferguson's side seven points adrift of Arsenal and Chelsea after just four matches, a gap that many already regard as too big to be made up.

A fee of around 25 million pounds (45 million dollars) for Rooney would make him the third most expensive acquisition by United or any other British club, behind the 29 million United paid for Rio Ferdinand and the 28 million they splashed out on Juan Sebastian Veron.

Since those deals were done however the transfer market has gone into freefall and United had initially baulked at meeting Everton's valuation of their most prized asset.

Ferguson's hand was forced however when Newcastle made a surprise bid of 20 million pounds last week, subsequently raising their offer to 23.5 million.

Up until then, Everton boss David Moyes had been confident that Rooney would agree to sign a new five-year contract at the club that discovered and developed him.

Any hope Everton had of clinging on to Rooney disappeared on Friday when he handed in a formal transfer request, citing his desire to move to a club that could provide him with regular European football.

Rooney's desire to leave Liverpool has also been driven by recent lurid press revelations that he had frequented back-street brothels in his home city.