Cadbury also said that it had renewed an agreement with the bottling subsidiary of pepsi-cola.

The agreement with coca-cola concerns the brands of schweppes, dr pepper, canada dry and cruish.

But the agreement does not cover interests in france and south africa.

Cadbury wants to sell its sales network and bottling business in france.

The business affected by the deal contributed nine per cent of cadbury's trading profits of 56 million pounds last year.

The chief executive of cadbury schweppes, john sunderland said,"this deal with coca-cola will create immediate and substantial value for our shareholders. Simultaneously it enhances our ability to develop our string global confectionary and us beverage businesses".

The head of coca-cola, douglas ivester, said, "these agreements will allow the coca-cola company to participate in segments of the beverage business where it currently does not have meaningful entries."