Low in spirit: BBC media correspondent Torin Douglas

The New Millennium Experience Company said the area - to be called the Spirit Zone - is proving the most difficult of the Dome's 14 zones to fund.

Around £6m is being sought for the zone.

The New Millennium Experience Company's original model of how the Spirit Zone was to look

Each zone is dedicated to a different subject, such as Body, Work, Mind, Learning, Play, Mobility, Identity and Communication. The Body Zone will contain the already famous giant model of a human body that visitors can travel through.

The 13 other zones have all either had their sponsorship finalised or are involved negotiations over funding. But the Spirit Zone has failed to attract firm offers of financial support even after business with religious links had been approached.

Troubled 'zone'

The Spirit Zone is intended to represent spirituality and religion. From the outset of the dome's planning stages church groups criticised it for giving what they saw as a low priority to the religious aspect of the millennium.

Artist's impression of the inside of the Dome

The zone is intended to reflect not just Christianity but other faiths. Designers put together plans for its contents with the multifaith - but predominantly Christian - Lambeth Group.

Plans for the zone included a giant pyramid and "pilgrims' progress" through the history of religion.