The King Senzangakhona Stadium, one of five new venues to be built for the soccer extravaganza, will cost 1.6 billion rand (US$246 million) and will seat a crowd of up to 80,000 soccer fans.

An artists impression of the stadium was unveiled in Durban on Thursday, which boast a 30-storey arch stretching across its entire length.

The stadium is named after the father of King Shaka, a famed Zulu chief in the 19th century. It is situated near Durban's Indian Ocean beach and next to the existing 40,000-seat Absa Stadium.

"Nowhere in the (KuaZulu-Natal) province is there a structure worth 1.6 billion rand. There is much that needs to be done," KwaZulu-Natal premier S'bu Ndebele was quoted as saying by the SAPA news agency at the unveiling ceremony.

The stadium, which is expected to be completed by December 2008, will also have an athletics track around the pitch and underground parking for 10,000 cars.

More technical details about the stadium were not released on Thursday. Details about how the stadium's construction would be financed were also not made known.

South Africa will be the first African host of the World Cup and has pledged to make it most successful event ever. Other new stadia will be built in Cape Town, Port Elizabeth, Nelspruit and Polokwane.