According to the Wen Wei Po newspaper, which is seen as sticking closely to the line taken by the mainland Chinese government in Beijing, the plan forms part of a wide-ranging sale of assets to deal with a swelling budget deficit.

The government would not confirm the report, although the asset sale itself is common knowledge.

But a spokeswoman told Reuters that there were several banks advising the government on its planned sale, and on what should go on the block.

Wen Wei Po said that besides Hong Kong Disneyland, housing loans for civil servants, the Ocean Park themepark and various investments in transport, property and tourism are on the list of assets to be sold off.

Number five

The US$1.8bn Hong Kong Disneyland is still in its early stages, ground having been broken in January of this year.

Its scheduled completion date is 2005, to become the fifth Disney theme park around the world after Florida, California, Tokyo and Paris.

The government currently owns 57% of the project, but could - some analysts warned - have trouble finding a buyer.

"It's probably not going to be that profitable in the early years, and this is a long term project," said George Leung, chief economist at HSBC in Hong Kong.

But, as Merrill Lynch economist Marvin Wong pointed out: "Everything has a price, so if the government decides to sell its Disney stake cheap, then a lot of people would be interested."

The government has already sold HK$4.8bn in civil servants' housing loans, with speculation about further sales centring on assets such as the Airport Authority, worth at some estimates HK$36-38bn.

Red ink

after a HK$61.7bn deficit in 2002, this year's figure is forecast to rise to HK$68bn or 5.5% of gross domestic product, and some economists have voiced fears that the currency's peg to the US dollar could be at risk.

Others have suggested taking advantage of current low global interest rates to launch a fresh bond issue to plug the gap.

Growth in 2003 is predicted to be 1.5%, a figure the government has stuck by despite the damage wrought by the Sars respiratory epidemic.