LONDON London's millennium dome, widely criticized as a white elephant, was Britain's most popular paid attraction during its year of operation in 2000, the English Tourism Council said.

The dome, which was built to mark the new millennium and which featured in the opening scenes of the James Bond film ****"The World Is Not Enough"*****, attracted over 6.5 million visitors.

This was nearly double the figure for the second-placed London eye, the giant Ferris Wheel on the banks of the Thames river, the Reuters reported.

The dome and London eye were followed by Alton Towers Theme Park in Staffordshire, central England, the capital's famed waxwork Museum Madame Tussaud's and the Tower of London.

But the dome, a giant tent-like structure in Greenwich, east London, featuring an array of exhibitions, fell well short of its target of 12 million visitors for the year it was open.

It gobbled up nearly one billion pounds ($1.44 billion) of public money and was sold by the government last month.

The annual "sightseeing in the UK" survey said the north-west's blackpool pleasure beach, which does not have an entry fee but charges for rides, came top of the list of "free" attractions, with some 300,000 more tourists than the dome.

Visitors spent 1.4 billion pounds at British tourist spots during the year, half of it on admission charges or donations.

The majority of visitors -- 86 percent -- came from the UK, the survey found.

The average adult admission charge was 3.37 pounds ($4.85), with 62 percent of attractions charging an entrance fee. Total visitor numbers fell two percent to 413 million.

London's Victoria and Albert Museum saw a 7.4 percent increase in visitors in 2000, thanks to a popular Art Nouveau Exhibition and longer Friday opening hours.

In 2001 many museums received a boost with the abolition of admission charges, but external events such as the foot and mouth crisis and the aftermath of the September 11 attacks on the United States caused a drop in tourist numbers.

While the operators of the London Eye, have applied for it to be a permanent fixture, the millennium dome closed its doors to visitors at the end of 2000 as planned.

Last month the government put the dome in the hands of a private consortium, Meridian Delta Ltd., which will use the venue for sports events and concerts.