The president of the Confederation of British Industry, Sir Colin Marshall, has urged Japanese firms to invest in the Millennium Dome project.

Mr Marshall, who recently travelled to Tokyo with the Prime Minister, Tony Blair, said he believed Japanese firms would be keen to have a chance to promote their technology in the Dome in exchange for financial contributions.

Sir Colin hopes Japanese firms will promote their technology in exchange for investment

Firms from Europe and the United States are also being approached.

The Prime Minister's official spokesperson said that Japanese firms had expressed enthusiasm about involvement when Mr Blair met representatives of the Keidanren, Japan's equivalent of the CBI, in Tokyo on Saturday.

Mr Blair told them the British Government was keen for them to get involved.

His spokesperson said that interested companies were attracted in part because of the celebrity of Greenwich Mean Time across the world, but also because no other country appeared to be doing anything else like it.

Plans being 'diluted'

The move has attracted criticism from opposition parties who said the idea meant that the "Britishness" of the Dome would be diluted.

The �750m project has been plagued with controversy since it began.

The Commons Culture Committee has criticised what it called "excessive secrecy", calling it a journey into the unknown.

Despite assurances from the Minister in charge, Peter Mandelson, that Christianity would be central to the Dome, the creative consultant, Sir Terence Conran, said it was "no place for Jesus".

The creative director, Stephen Bayley, has also resigned calling Mr Mandelson "authoritarian".

Francis Maude has called on the Government to explain itself

Critics of the Government's handling of the project insist that there is confusion over both the purpose of the Dome as well as its funding.

The Shadow Secretary of State for Culture, Francis Maude, was derisive about the announcement and asked the Government to explain exactly what was happening to the Dome.

"One week Mr Mandelson is in Florida looking for ideas, the next Mr Blair is in Japan looking for money.

"This exhibition was meant to be the best of British. There is just a hint of desperation about all this," he said.
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