Millennium Dome minister Lord Falconer has denied the attraction is in crisis after the resignation of its chief executive.

But he said Jennie Page's replacement, Pierre-Yves Gerbeau, from Disneyland Paris, was just what the Dome needed.

It was not too late to give the Dome a new boss despite relentless negative publicity and poor attendance figures, he said.

He denied Ms Page had done a bad job while in charge, saying the building had moved from being a building project to a major attraction and needed a new sort of manager.

"He has got a proven track record as a first class operator of a visitor attraction," he said of Mr Gerbeau.

"I am quite sure he will bring those skills that he learnt and put into practice there, into running the Dome."

However Conservative leader William Hague said Ms Page was "a bit of a scapegoat", and that government ministers had been "hugely involved" in the project.

Speaking on BBC One's Breakfast With Frost, he said: "Now those ministers are blaming her. The Dome is becoming all too much of a representation of New Labour - lots of hype beforehand, and then a sense of being let down and disappointed, and then blame someone else."

He conceded the idea was conceived under the Tory Government, but said "we have ended up with something that's very glitzy on the outside but is a little empty when you're trapped on the inside".

Ms Page resigned on Saturday, a day after figures showed just 320,000 people visited the Millennium Dome in its first month - roughly 11,000 a day. Mr Gerbeau, 34, has been credited with turning around the Disneyland Paris operation after a problematic launch.

Cabinet Office Minister Mo Mowlam welcomed the appointment of Mr Gerbeau and said: "We want the best person for the job, whether it's a Frenchman, a German or an Italian, man or woman."

She told ITV's Sunday Programme: "Jennie Page has done an excellent job of getting the Dome up and working. Many people did not think it could be done but she did it and we owe her a big thank you.

"But there is no doubt that there was always a perception that to run it, to manage a visitor attraction, you would need different talents."

Management skills

He said: "No-one is apportioning blame in any way. No-one is trying to dump on Jennie. She did a good job.

"We all accept that there have been difificulties but we hope that by changing the management to someone who is skilled in doing this we will get over some of those problems and move forward."

The NMEC this week applied to the Millennium Commission for a multi-million pound cash injection to cover its running costs.

Some companies have withheld sponsorship money until the Dome is on a more solid footing.

Ms Page, 55, was placed in charge of the Millennium Dome in 1996, and was contracted to complete her task in 2001.

A former chief executive of English Heritage, she was due to receive a £200,000 performance-related bonus for successful completion of the project.