Ikea will begin a television advertising campaign in the Republic from today in advance of the opening of its Belfast store on Friday week.

RTÉ and channels on the Sky platform will carry the advertisements as part of Ikea's attempts to lure shoppers from south of the Border to Belfast.

Ikea has already distributed approximately 640,000 leaflets in the Republic.

However, although all of the 650,000 homes in the North have received copies of the Ikea catalogue, which has the biggest print run in the world, there are no plans to distribute it in the Republic until the opening of the Dublin store.

Ikea has also announced details of its home delivery service for the Republic.

Householders in Dublin and in the Border counties of Louth, Monaghan, Cavan and Donegal will pay £100 (€140) for two pallets.

A single pallet can take an item as large as a sofa or a bed.

However, householders in the rest of the Republic will only be given a price on request for home delivery.

The kitchen installation service will also only be available to customers in Northern Ireland, although an Ikea spokeswoman said the company was examining options for such a service in the Republic.

Plans for the Ikea store in Ballymun, north Dublin, have been put on hold pending an announcement later this month from the National Roads Authority regarding the phase two upgrade of the M50.

The upgrade will involve the widening of the motorway from the airport exit to the N3 interchange.

An Bord Pleanála made the completion of the upgrade a condition of planning permission for the 30,000sq m store because of fears over the amount of traffic it would generate.

Initially, Ikea had initially hoped for an August 2008 opening date for its Dublin operation, but it may now be 2009 before the store opens.