The Prince of Wales has dismissed the Millennium Dome as a "monstrous blancmange" and a "crass waste of money", it has been reported.

Although Charles has not made any public statements about the beleaguered £758m project at Greenwich, south-east London, his views are well-known to churchmen and friends, according to The Sunday Times.

One of his friends told the newspaper that the prince was "outraged that so much money had been spent on something so worthless".

The prince, whose views on architecture have been widely publicised, is said to have told confidants the Dome is "commercial and banal" and, while, attending a recent musical recital at St Paul's Cathedral, said: "This is the real dome."

Officials at St James's Palace pointed out that the prince has made no on-the-record comments which were critical of the Dome, and described the Sunday Times story as a "speculative report based on anonymous sources".

The newspaper said the prince becomes particularly irate when he flies over the Dome and has told his pilot on at least one occasion to take a different route so he did not have to see the landmark.

He reportedly told one guest at Highgrove: "It reminds me of a giant greenhouse - except that would be an insult to fertiliser."

The absence of a sacred element to the millennium project was the turning point in the prince's decision to distance himself from the Dome, the newspaper said.