IT WAS new Labour’s white elephant, a £750m monument that became an international laughing stock and left corporate sponsors hiding their logos in embarrassment.

But the fortunes of the Millennium Dome, five years after its disastrous attempt to become one of the world’s most famous tourist attractions, may be about to change.

O2, the country’s third-largest mobile phone company, is in talks with Anschutz Entertainment Group, the site’s owner, to turn the dome’s roof into a giant advertising hoarding.

O2 is considering paying millions of pounds a year to have its brand image permanently displayed on the giant tent as part of a campaign to become the biggest player in Britain’s highly competitive mobile phone industry.

It is also considering renaming the dome “the O2 Bubble” in an attempt to exploit the maximum commercial value from the deal, according to a source close to the negotiations.

The company is looking for new ways to promote itself when a high-profile sponsorship agreement with the Premiership team Arsenal expires next year.

A spokeswoman for O2 said it was considering a number of options, but has yet to commit to a specific agreement.

The dome, which once employed the advertising slogan “One amazing day” to attract visitors but fell well short of its target of 12m in 2000, is being transformed into a sports and entertainment complex by Philip Anschutz, a Denver-based billionaire.

To the annoyance of the politicians most closely associated with the dome’s construction — Tony Blair, Lord Falconer and Peter Mandelson, now Britain’s EU commissioner — the site’s future has been a drawn-out saga.

According to a National Audit Office report published in January, the dome cost taxpayers £28.7m to run between its closure in early 2001 and the middle of last year. It is not due to reopen for commercial use until 2007.

Under Anschutz’s £5 billion redevelopment plans, the revamped venue on the Greenwich peninsula in south London will include a 20,000-seat arena for sport and music, a theatre and a casino, likely to be operated by the South African tycoon Sol Kerzner.

Last week the England football captain David Beckham revealed that he would play a role in the revival of the dome’s image by basing a football academy there.

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