BBC newsreader Mishal Husain is joining the Today programme's presenting line-up.

Husain will become the second woman on the Radio 4 flagship morning show when she joins Sarah Montague, John Humphrys, Evan Davis, James Naughtie and Justin Webb in the autumn.

BBC director-general Tony Hall said: "It is such great news that Mishal will be joining the Today programme. She is a first-rate journalist who will be an excellent addition to what is already a very strong team.

"I am also particularly pleased that her appointment means there will be another female voice on the programme, which I believe is extremely important."

Husain said: "I have long been an admirer of Today and am delighted to have the opportunity to join the team. The programme has unparalleled influence across BBC News and on our national conversation and I am looking forward to being part of it."

The BBC said that, as well as continuing to regularly present Today, Naughtie will take on a role in the BBC's coverage of the independence referendum.

It will include hosting Good Morning Scotland for two days a week and taking on a chief reporter role across the leading Radio 4 news programmes.

The Scottish broadcaster will be back presenting on the Today programme full-time before the general election in 2015.

He said: "I am thrilled at this enhancement of my role on Today. Constitutional debate and decision next year has great historic importance for Scotland and the whole of the UK, so I am excited to be in the thick of it, on both sides of the border, from start to finish."

Husain, the BBC's first Washington-based presenter, currently presents Sunday's BBC News At Ten and is the main host of Impact, a 90-minute daily programme on BBC World News.

Last year, she was one of the key faces of the BBC's Olympics coverage.

She reported from Pakistan after the death of Osama Bin Laden and the assassination of Benazir Bhutto.

BBC bosses have previously been criticised for not putting enough female presenters and guests on the agenda-setting Today programme.

Last year, Culture Minister Ed Vaizey complained about the lack of women on the flagship show in a House of Commons debate on gender balance in broadcasting.

He cited research which showed that the number of women on the show, which has around seven million listeners a week, averaged just 17% of guests and reporters.

Last year, then director-general George Entwistle said he would like to see the programme, which launched in 1957, appoint a woman when it signs up its next presenter.

News of the appointment comes just days after a report revealed that only one in five solo presenters on UK radio is female.

Campaigning group Sound Women found that in co-hosted shows, listeners are nearly 10 times as likely to hear two or more male presenters than they are to hear two or more female presenters.