The name of the long-awaited seventh Harry Potter book was revealed yesterday as Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows.

It will be the final instalment of JK Rowling's series featuring the schoolboy wizard.

The title of the eagerly awaited book appears on publisher Bloomsbury's website.

A publication date has not been set for the book, which will follow Harry and friends during their final year at Hogwarts.

On her website, Rowling, 41, has said she is still writing the book.

She said: ''I'm now writing scenes that have been planned, in some cases, for a dozen years or even more.

"I both want, and don't want, to finish this book.''

But she reassured expectant fans: ''Don't worry, I will.''

She recently hinted that two characters are expected to die in the finale - and Harry himself might not survive - saying: ''We are dealing with pure evil here. They don't target extras, do they? They go for the main characters - well, I do.''

The name of the book was unveiled on Rowling's official website in the form of a puzzle.

The author invites fans to find a key to a locked door.

Inside the door lies a gift and inside the wrapping, there is a hangman word game.

Fans have to guess which letters fill the gaps before the words ''Deathly Hallows'' are revealed.

Book stores said the name conjured up a sense of mystery.

''The announcement of the title of the seventh Harry Potter book has been greeted with huge excitement and a great deal of speculation by everyone at Waterstone's,'' said the chain's children's buyer, Sam Harrison.

''This is a wonderfully intriguing and ominous title, with all the sense of magic and adventure that any true Potter fan has come to love and expect.

''All fans will now be spending their Christmas debating what the title means.

"Will a favourite character die? Could Harry himself face a grisly demise? How will it all end?

''But surely the question all Potter fans will want answering as soon as possible is - when can they get their hands on a copy?"

Rowling's last book, Harry Potter And The Half-Blood Prince, broke UK records by selling 2,009,574 copies on its first day of release.

Since the publication of the first book, Harry Potter and The Philosopher's Stone, in 1997, sales of all the titles now total more than 52 million worldwide.

The first four books have been adapted into hit films starring Daniel Radcliffe as the boy wizard.