A DAMNING report on plans for a national athletics stadium condemns government bungling and the cavalier use of public funds.

The Commons Culture Media and Sport Committee quotes Oliver Hardy's famous phrase ''another fine mess'' to describe the sorry saga of plans for the UK to host the 2005 World Athletics Championships.

At first it had been planned to include athletics in a rebuilt Wembley Stadium in London and £120m of Lottery cash was awarded by Sport England before the plan was abandoned.

The committee, chaired by Gorton MP Gerald Kaufman, say the decision to remove athletics from Wembley was ''perverse and bizarre'' and the offer of a Lottery grant was a ''cavalier'' use of public funds.

The report criticises the choice of the Picketts Lock site in London for a national stadium - that project has been abandoned as too expensive - and MPs say the current plan to develop an athletics stadium in Sheffield has ''traded one risk for another''.

The government abandoned plans for the Picketts Lock stadium after a report by businessman Patrick Carter, the man who sorted out the finances of the Manchester Commonwealth Games. He said there was a risk the Picketts Lock plan could be a disaster.

Government officials then opened talks with Manchester city council, to discuss whether the Commonwealth Games Stadium could be used for the 2005 Games, but this idea was abandoned.

On Monday the International Amateur Athletics Federation Council will meet to consider whether to hold the 2005 Games in Sheffield, instead of London - or whether to reopen the bidding, which could mean the UK losing the Games.

The committee concluded: ''The Department of Culture Media and Sport and Sport England both have important lessons to learn from the mess described in this report.''

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