England will play friendlies against Uruguay and Jamaica ahead of next summer's World Cup finals, the Football Association have confirmed.

Sven-Goran Eriksson's men will meet the South Americans at Anfield on March 1 and then take on the Reggae Boyz at the new Wembley Stadium as their last warm-up game on Saturday June 3, with both matches screened live on the BBC.

A friendly against Hungary at Wembley on May 30 had already been confirmed as part of the final preparations ahead of Germany 2006.

England kick off their bid to win the World Cup against Paraguay in Frankfurt on June 10, before meeting Trinidad and Tobago in Nuremberg five days later. Their final Group B game will be against Eriksson's homeland of Sweden on June 20 in Cologne.

The England head coach told www.thefa.com: "I'm delighted that we have been able to finalise these fixtures quickly and am very pleased with our opponents.

"These games will allow us to test ourselves against teams with very different styles of play, which is critical ahead of a World Cup."

Uruguay missed out on the World Cup finals when they were beaten in their two-legged play-off against Australia in a penalty shoot-out in Sydney having finished fifth in the South American qualifying group.

During qualification, they beat Argentina at home and also drew with current world champions Brazil twice.

Eriksson said of the two-time World Cup winners: "Uruguay are a very well-organised team who are very difficult to play against and came very close to qualifying for Germany.

"They will present a tough test and a similar challenge to our group opponents Paraguay."

Jamaica added plenty of colour and a carnival atmosphere to the 1998 World Cup, but failed to make it to Germany this time around, beaten by the United States in the second stage of the CONCACAF qualifying rounds.

Eriksson said: "Jamaica will be similar in style to Trinidad and Tobago, and have a lot of players playing in this country, like Ricardo Gardner at Bolton and Jason Euell at Charlton.

"I know that this game will be a fantastic occasion, as I'm sure they will be very well supported. It promises to be a special match."

Eriksson, meanwhile, revealed he intended for England's preparations to be "absolutely top-quality", with the domestic season having been cut short this year to enable the international players extra time off.

The Swede said: "We will make sure that our preparation is absolutely top-quality.

"Of course we also have the extra week's build-up which will be crucial for the recovery of the players after a long season."

Eriksson added on www.thefa.com: "Besides these games, we will be scouting and studying the teams in our World Cup group and potential opponents in the knock-out rounds.

"I am very excited about this World Cup.

"With the blend of quality, youth and experience we have in our squad, we are confident of beating any opponents."

Jamaica's football president has hailed the friendly with England as "an historic game" for the Caribbean island.

The Reggae Boyz have never played England and have been trying for years to set up a fixture.

Crenston Boxhill, president of the Jamaican Football Federation, said: "We are overjoyed and it will be like a carnival. I'm sure every Jamaican fan in England, Europe and here in Jamaica will want to go the match.

"We have been trying to arrange a game for a very, very long time so we feel this is quite an achievement.

"It is extra special because of the close ties between the two countries. As a former British colony we feel England is the mother country, so to speak, and that we learned our football from her."

Boxhill said the game would have extra spice because of the proximity to the World Cup and the fact most of the Jamaican players are based in England.

He added: "There are so many significant things about the game: we hope it will be one of the first matches at the new Wembley stadium, most of our players ply their trade in England and it will be England's last game before the World Cup.

"It's going to be more than just a friendly. This means so much to Jamaica and it will be an historic occasion for all of us."

The fixture will see up to 9,000 seats allocated to Jamaica fans and the Jamaican FA's proceeds from the game will be used for a youth development programme.