Facebook has settled on Dublin as the site for its new international headquarters.

The company revealed on Thursday that the new office would house technical and sales operations for the company's business in Europe, the Middle East and Africa.

Facebook cited Dublin's large local talent pool as a major factor in its decision.

"As we grow and strive to make Facebook into a place for people around the world to connect and share information, we need local operations to better advance our efforts," said chief operating officer Sharyl Sandberg.

"The talent pool in Dublin is world class and recruiting local talent will help us better understand the needs of local users and the regional dynamics that, in turn, can give us better insight into the features that matter most."

The deal will make Facebook the second tech giant to pick Dublin for a major new computing centre. In March, IBM chose the city to host one of several new cloud computing installations the firm is rolling out worldwide.

"This is an exciting investment for our country to host the leader in social networking," said Mary Coughlan, Tanáiste and minister for trade, enterprise and employment.

"Facebook has fast become a worldwide name and it is a terrific endorsement that Ireland can satisfy the needs of such highly innovative and technologically advanced companies as they make critical investments."