Former Brazil international Zico has reached an agreement with the Japan Football Association (JFA) to coach the national team, Kyodo News agency said on Friday.

Zico's attorney Antonio Simoes da Costa ended negotiations on the four-year-long contract with association representatives in Tokyo on Wednesday, the news agency said in a dispatch from Rio de Janeiro, quoting a Zico aide in Brazil.

"He authorised da Costa to close the deal with the Japanese prior to leaving Tokyo," on Thursday, Zico's assistant was quoted by Kyodo as saying.

Zico, 49, who is due in Rio on Friday night Japan time, will be flying back to Japan on July 17 to make his official announcement at the association's headquarters in Tokyo on July 20, according to the assistant.

A JFA spokesman declined to confirm the report, saying: "We cannot say anything until July 20th."

Zico took part in three World Cup finals from 1978. He came out of retirement to play for Japanese club side Kashima, hanging up his boots for good in 1994.

He is now Kashima's general manager and the team has won the league title four times.

Zico, Brazil's technical director at the 1998 finals, emerged as one of the top candidates to guide Japan to a place in the 2006 World Cup inGermany, replacing outgoing coach Philippe Troussier whose contract expired at the end of the 2002 tournament on June 30.

On Friday, sports and education minister Atsuko Toyama welcomed Zico's reported acceptance of the offer.

"He has brilliant achievements as a player and has his own experience in Japan," Toyama told a news conference. "I am sure that prospects for Japan's football will be brighten" with the association to be headed by Zico, she said.