The Walt Disney board on Sunday said Robert Iger would take over as the entertainment group's chief executive when Michael Eisner steps down next year.

The decision to promote the president and chief operating officer had been foreshadowed when Mr Iger was touted as Mr Eisner's preferred choice and the board declared him as the sole internal candidate.

While it was not a surprise, the decision came more than two months before the June deadline that the board set last year for concluding a search among leaders of other companies.

Work is now expected to start on the hunt for a new chairman to replace George Mitchell, who will step down next spring, and an executive to fill Mr Iger's shoes.

The public grooming of Mr Iger, 54, started shortly after his name was put at the top of the company's list last year. The main unanswered question on Sunday was whether Mr Eisner, who has led Disney since 1984, would leave before his scheduled retirement in September, 2006.

Mr Iger has taken an increasingly prominent role in company presentations to Wall Street analysts and investors, who have warmed to him noticeably after some initial scepticism.

He joined the company at the head of the ABC broadcasting network in 1996 when Disney purchased its parent, Capital Cities/ABC, for a then record $19bn.

Mr Iger's prospects improved markedly with the recent recovery of the ABC network on the back of a series of popular primetime shows, including Desperate Housewives.

The decision came after a trawl of other potential candidates, believed to include Meg Whitman, chief executive of the Ebay online auction service, who was reported on Sunday to have withdrawn her name at the weekend.

Others seen as potential candidates included Peter Chernin, president of News Corp.

Indications that the selection process was well under way emerged last week when Stanley Gold and Roy Disney, the dissident ex-directors who quit in late 2003, called for Mr Eisner to be excluded from interviews.

They suggested he would intimidate the board and claimed in an open letter that allowing Mr Eisner to sit in made a mockery of the process. They said the board's duty was to "make an informed, independent decision, one that is not blindly predicated on the dictates of a CEO."

Mr Mitchell discussed Mr Iger's appointment in a telephone press conference on Sunday, following a board meeting.