Amazon.com, the world's biggest internet retailer, is in talks with IDA Ireland about setting up a multi-million euro European operations centre in Dublin.
Representatives from the US firm met Government officials last week to discuss the project, which could create hundreds of skilled jobs for technology and marketing graduates.
The Amazon officials also visited several internet data centres in Dublin to assess their suitability for hosting web servers, the computers that power Amazon's country-specific internet sites.
Senior industry sources believe Ireland is a front runner for the Amazon project, given that it has already attracted similar high-profile Web projects from Google, Overture and eBay.
An IDA spokesman refused to confirm last week's meetings. But he said the agency was continuing talks with all the main companies in the digital media sector since securing investments from Google, eBay and Overture.
An Amazon spokeswoman at the company's British headquarters refused to comment when contacted yesterday.
Amazon is believed to be looking at a number of European locations that could offer low-cost and reliable telecoms connectivity to enable it to serve its growing European business. It may also need to recruit additional marketing and other administrative staff for a new centre.
Other countries that compete with the Republic for these types of internet investments include Britain, Switzerland and Holland.
Several internet data centres based in the Republic would be capable of hosting Amazon's web servers for Europe, including facilities owned by Esat BT, WorldCom and Telecity.
But due to the sensitive nature of the internet data centre industry, none of the firms would comment on Amazon's intentions when contacted yesterday.
Amazon, which sells books,DVDs and a range of other products over the Web, confounded its critics recently when it turned a profit in a non-Christmas quarter. It is now worth about $21 billion and forecasts sales of $5.75 billion in 2003 and $6.25 billion in 2004.
Over the past year, Amazon founder and chief executive Mr Jeff Bezos's wealth rose by $3 billion to $5 billion after the internet company's share price tripled this year. In the latest Forbes magazine rich list, he is ranked as the 32nd richest person in the US.
Dublin became a hub for Web- related projects when the Government signed a deal with the US telecoms company Global Crossing, which slashed the cost of international connectivity.
