AN Irish company has signed a deal, estimated to be worth around £100,000 a year, to provide the Daily Mirror newspaper with all its Irish sports coverage.

The company will provide the service through a new sports agency, which is headed by Mr Cathal Dervan, the former Sunday World sports editor. It will supply up to six tabloid pages of news daily to the Mirror, beginning this Sunday, for Monday's edition.

The move is seen as part of the Mirror drive to win more readers in Ireland. The newspaper prints its Irish edition in Belfast.

Mr Dervan said yesterday that the Mirror would not drop its existing coverage of sporting events, unless particular events were deemed of little or no relevance to Irish readers.

He said the sports agency would be the first of its kind in Ireland and he envisaged it would eventually, provide a service to other clients.

"Every big town in Britain has a sports agency servicing various media," he said.

He said the Mirror already outsold the Star newspaper when combined sales in the North and the Republic were taken into account and the Star was "vulnerable" at present.

Mr Dervan was also a former sports editor of the Star and he worked for the daily Star in London. He also provides reports on soccer matches for RTE.

Mr Dervan has also been linked to a proposed new Sunday newspaper specialising in sports coverage. The newspaper, provisionally entitled,

Sports Sunday, is said to be aiming for a circulation of about 40,000.

Among the backers is Mr Peter Quinn, a financial consultant, who is also a brother of the cement manufacturer and owner of several pubs, Mr Sean Quinn.

No firm launch date has been set and the consortium is still evaluating its market research.