The experienced Italian has signed a two-year contract, with the hope he will lead the Republic to the 2010 World Cup finals in South Africa.

Trapattoni immediately impressed a packed audience inside the Concert Hall at Dublin's RDS with his grasp of English.

Although a touch 'staccato' - to borrow an Italian phrase - the 68-year-old was certainly far more impressive than Fabio Capello in his first press conference as England manager.

Assessing Ireland's chances of qualification from a tough group that also includes Italy, Capello said: "I am looking forward to the challenge.

"It will be difficult as we are in a tough group with five other very good teams, but I trust my team. We are all friends and we will work together.

"It will be a great honour to qualify, but first we have two very important weeks coming up at the end of this month."

That was with reference to an initial week-long training camp in Portugal followed by friendlies against Serbia at Croke Park and Colombia at Fulham's Craven Cottage.

That will serve as Trapattoni's first assessment of the squad he has inherited, although he has already done a remarkable amount of homework on the players, watching up to 30 DVDs.

"Very soon we will trim the squad from 40 to 28 players," added Trapattoni as an initial enlarged squad was announced last month.

"We will talk to those players who have retired from international football, but who are still playing at a high level.

"They have to decide over the next few weeks if they want to be involved. If they don't then they will not come.

"We will then use the training camp in Portugal to get our ideas across to the players."

Trapattoni has an experienced backroom team that includes Marco Tardelli and the legendary Liam Brady, along with Frank Stapleton and Mick Martin, both former internationals.

The pressure will be on Trapattoni to succeed as the Republic have now failed to qualify for the last three major tournaments.

But Trapattoni, who has won countless trophies throughout his career as a player and manager in Italy, Portugal, Germany and Austria, said: "I have always sought a challenge to bring out the best in me.

"When Don Givens (under-21 coach and a member of the three-man selection panel) called me and asked me if I would be interested in becoming Ireland manager, I became very excited.

"At that moment I was working in Salzburg (with Red Bull), but I needed a new experience, and I think this job is the right one at the right time for me."