A BOLTON firm is today celebrating the news that its £11 million contract to build the futuristic Millennium Dome is to go ahead.

The news, announced by the Prime Minister Tony Blair yesterday, means 600 jobs are safeguarded at the Lostock firm Watson Steel.

Today company chiefs expressed their "excitement" that the Millennium project had been saved by a last minute intervention of Mr Blair.

The £580 million plan for the world's biggest tourist attraction looked under threat as pressure mounted to axe the costly Greenwich scheme.

But yesterday, Tony Blair rescued the project from the brink of collapse.

A spokesman for Watson Steel said: "As a company we are very excited at being involved in supplying steel for the Millennium Dome.

"The aim is to build the biggest dome in the world. "We welcome the news that the project will go ahead and we echo the sentiments made yesterday by the chairman of the Millennium Exhbition who said the government's backing will ensure that Britain has an event to mark an important moment in the life of the nation.

"But we felt confident that the project would not be scrapped."

Watson have already begun making steel structures for the 350ft high dome which is to be built along the Greenwich meridian line.

But it is not yet known exactly when construction work will begin.

Watson will supply and erect 1,600 tonnes of steelwork and more than 70km of cabling for the project. After yesterday's Cabinet meeting, which lasted more than an hour, Mr Blair also backed the use of "regional participation" ensuring that companies outside London, such as Watson Steel, were involved in putting Britain on the map in the year 2000.

New plans for attractions inside the dome include a virtual reality Space Walk, a 'ride' through the human body and holograms of great inventions.

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.