The Spanish city of Valencia has reached an agreement to host a grand prix on a street circuit around the new America's Cup port from 2008, Formula One supremo Bernie Ecclestone announced on Thursday.

Ecclestone said however that the seven-year agreement with the Valencia regional government was conditional on the present president Francisco Camps of the centre-right Partido Popular winning local elections to be held later this month.

The race, to be called the European Grand Prix, is scheduled for late in the season on a newly designed circuit of between 4.1 and 4.3 km in length reminiscent of Monaco's with its harbour-side location.

Spanish media said that Ecclestone had insisted the race must be on a street circuit rather than the nearby Ricardo Tormo track in Cheste which hosts a round of the MotoGP world championship and is also used for Formula One testing.

The inclusion of the Valencia race would give Spain two grands prix next year, an announcement at odds with Ecclestone's previous opinion that no European country should have more than one race. Imola, the Italian circuit that hosted the San Marino Grand Prix, was axed from the calendar this year while the Nuerburgring and Hockenheim are now alternating as hosts of the German Grand Prix. Meanwhile, the chance that Singapore will host its first Formula One race next year looks remote because organisers and the government cannot agree on how to fund the $70 million event, a local newspaper reported. Quoting a source familiar with the talks, the Straits Times said negotiations between Singapore tycoon Ong Beng Seng, who controls resorts developer Hotel Properties, Formula One supremo Bernie Ecclestone and the city-state's government were stuck.

"He (Mr Ong) wants the government to foot a large part of the bill, but the government thinks that it is unwise," the newspaper quoted its unidentified source as saying.

A second source told the Straits Times that Singapore, which wants to host a grand prix to boost tourism and jazz up its image, is negotiating for better terms from Ecclestone because holding a possible night race would be more expensive. (Reuters)

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