The BBC's 1/8BBC.CN 3/8 Internet news service BBC News Online has agreed to provide news to Yahoo! UK & Ireland in its first ever content deal with an external online news provider, Yahoo! said on Monday.

Yahoo! UK & Ireland said in a statement BBC News Online would deliver regularly updated news for its Yahoo! News, Yahoo! Sport, Yahoo! Finance, My Yahoo! and Yahoo! Messenger sites.

Given the BBC's status as a public service broadcaster, Yahoo! said it would present the BBC news service in a way to ensure editorial independence. As a result, pages hosting BBC stories will not carry any advertising.

As part of the content deal, BBC News Online will provide at least five top stories from each of the six main sections of its Internet news service: UK, world, politics, business, science and technology and sport.

Reuters Group Plc is default news provider on most of Yahoo! UK & Ireland's news sections. Yahoo! UK & Ireland also carries news from the Press Association and ZDNet Inc., among others.

Yahoo! UK & Ireland, part of Yahoo! Inc, currently has over 253 million page views a month while BBC News Online attracts 75 million, according to the latest ABC figures.