French eye the Eye

The French are making an audacious bid to take the London Eye to Paris.

In a move that will come as a blow to Britain's Olympic Games hopes, they want to see the wheel, which is under threat of eviction from London's South Bank, in their own capital.

A source close to the Paris 2012 bid committee said: "If the British don't want theirs, then we'll have it. It's a magnificent structure and it would seal our chances of winning the Games. Paris is in desperate need of a new big wheel and we will make a huge profit out of it.

"We heard that the London Eye may have to be moved in July and have made a speculative bid to British Airways already."

There is a vacancy after the hugely popular and profitable "Grande Roue de Paris" - another big wheel - was sold to a foreign company this year.

Paris - favourite to win the Games - hopes to cash in on the financial crisis enveloping the ?85 million Eye by getting it, perhaps at a knock-down rate. "It shouldn't be too hard to dismantle and then ship across the Channel," said the source.

The South Bank Centre, the government-appointed body which owns the current site on which the Eye's support stands, is threatening to raise the rent from £65,000 to £2.5 million a year. It has told the Eye it must vacate the site by 1 July, within days of a final decision on which city gets the Games.

Paris has been searching for a replacement for its Grande Roue ever since the last one - which was 180 feet high, compared with the Eye's 450 feet - was dismantled following a legal row.

It was briefly revived this year as the centrepiece of the city's Olympic bid. In its heyday - between 1999 and 2002 - La Grande Roue attracted two million visitors a year, raising £3 million for its owner and Paris council, with 20 per cent going to charity.

The wheel afforded superb views of Paris landmarks including the Eiffel Tower, Louvre, and Sacre Coeur. But the wheel was forced to shut after Paris officials needed to carry out renovation work on its location - a prime site in the Tuileries Gardens, by the Place de la Concorde.

The wheel's owner, businessman Marcel Campion, was then fined £10,700 a day for every day he kept the wheel standing. Although Paris town hall wanted it moved to another site, Mr Campion sold it to a foreign company early this year. It is now believed to be in an amusement park in Holland.

A spokeswoman for Mr Campion said: "Paris is in desperate need of a new big wheel, and the London Eye would fit the bill perfectly. It would provide a great boost to our Olympic hopes."

Representatives for both the Paris 2012 committee and Paris town hall agreed that acquiring the London Eye would provide a fillip to the French bid.

A London 2012 spokeswoman said: "It is interesting that Paris should want to cash in on giving a home to such an iconic London landmark, but we have every confidence that this dispute will be resolved.

"This is a matter for the London Eye and the South Bank Centre and we do not believe that the dispute will have any bearing on the IOC decision in July."