The Legacy consortium - 85 per cent owned by Treasury Holdings - says it has still not been formally told why it lost its status as preferred bidder for the Millennium Dome. Mr Maurice Hart, chief executive of Treasury Holdings, said yesterday that the consortium had still not received any documentation from the British Government.

Legacy had wanted to create a hi-tech business park called Knowledge City within the Dome as part of its £125 million sterling (€198.2 million) project. Responding to suggestions by Lord Falconer - the minister responsible for the project - that the problem lay with Legacy's failure to sign up tenants for its planned business park, Mr Hart said "there is an issue there".

He added that the consortium had gone as far as it could towards signing up high-tech companies but was hampered because it did not own the property or have a legal agreement with the government.

Legacy, which technically could still re-bid under the new competition process, is likely to decide next week whether to turn its back on the Dome. If it pulls out, it will try to recoup some of the £12 million sterling it has spent on the project.