The Edinburgh event attracted 10,000 pipers

In the first event of its kind, 10,000 pipers and drummers marched down Edinburgh's Princes Street in August, raising funds for Marie Curie Cancer Care.

The New York event, Tunes of Glory, is expected to take place on 6 April 2002 with about 500 pipe bands.

It is being organised by the same Edinburgh-based company behind the Princes Street event, with support from Scottish tourism body visitscotland.

Scottish First Minister Henry McLeish outlined plans for the event to Scotland's US Consul-General at a reception to mark Independence Day on Wednesday, his spokesman said.

"There is an event planned for next year in New York during Tartan Week which will involve hopefully 10,000 pipers marching down Fifth Avenue," said the spokesman.

Huge platform

"The event is being organised through visitscotland and hopefully it will enable us, as well as raising money for a very worthy cause, to raise the profile of Scotland in America, bringing benefits for tourism and business."

A spokesman for visitscotland said: "We are working with the event organisers, who also organised the Millennium Piping Festival in Edinburgh last year.

"They are looking at having 500 separate pipe bands, so obviously it is a huge platform for Scotland.

"They had a dry run event at the last Tartan Day in Central Park, which we supported with �30,000, and we have got that experience to build on.

"The Edinburgh event brought pipers from all over the world to the city, and it was felt that Tartan Week provided the ideal opportunity to take this event to the country where there is already an enormous interest in piping."