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Spending watchdog the National Audit Office will be able to fully examine the Â鶹ԼÅÄ's finances for the first time.

It will have access to "Â鶹ԼÅÄ management information and confidential Â鶹ԼÅÄ contracts with third parties", but will not include "commercially sensitive" details in its reports.

A spokesman for the NAO said it was "a step towards full accountability".

The Â鶹ԼÅÄ said the move did "not threaten the Â鶹ԼÅÄ's independence from government or Parliament".

The NAO scrutinises the finances of government departments and other public sector bodies to ensure good governance has being carried out and value for money has been achieved.

Until now, it could only investigate the Â鶹ԼÅÄ at the corporation's own request, for example, as part of internal value-for-money studies.

Wednesday's agreement means that in future the NAO will be able to decide what aspect of the Â鶹ԼÅÄ's finances it wants to look at and when.

However, the exclusion of "commercially sensitive" information suggests that details about fees and payments made to the Â鶹ԼÅÄ's biggest stars will remain secret.

The agreement follows weeks of negotiation between the Â鶹ԼÅÄ's governing body, the Â鶹ԼÅÄ Trust and the government.

In an effort to ensure editorial independence, the NAO will continue to submit its reports to the Trust, rather than directly to Parliament. The Trust will then deliver them to MPs via the culture secretary.

Speaking on behalf of the coalition government, Liberal Democrat culture spokesman Don Foster announced the move at the party's conference in Liverpool.

"However strong our support for the Â鶹ԼÅÄ, we can't allow it to waste licence fee-payers' money," he said.

"So I welcomed the announcement last week that the Â鶹ԼÅÄ intends to find additional efficiency savings - without significant impact on the quality of services - to enable it to freeze the licence fee for next year.

"But the coalition wants this focus on value for money to go further."

A spokesman for the Â鶹ԼÅÄ Trust said the NAO was "an important ally in our push to deliver transparency and better value for money for licence fee-payers".

He said the trust had already taken "significant steps to open up the NAO's access to Â鶹ԼÅÄ information further", and supported the plan to allow it to choose which areas to review on an annual basis.

"In our view, this does not threaten the Â鶹ԼÅÄ's independence from government or Parliament, provided that the NAO continues to report to the trust and does not question editorial decision-making," the spokesman added.