Hopes of launching a project for the young people of Bradford on the site of the failed Millenium Life Force scheme have been dashed.

Six months of talks aimed at Bradford Council buying the building where the former flagship project was housed have broken down without agreement.

Now the idea of using the upstairs floor of St Peter's House in Forster Square to pioneer a range of youth projects appears to be scuppered.

The Life Force project, which was backed with £2.2 million of funding from the Millennium Commission, collapsed in May 2001 after the predicted level of visitors failed to materialise. Life Force was trumpeted as Bradford's answer to the Millennium Dome's faith zone, but never pulled in the expected numbers.

The companies set up to manage the project by Bradford Cathedral, St Peter's House Trading Ltd and St Peter's House Bradford Ltd, went into administration just seven months after the scheme opened.

And the Millennium Commission, which pumped in nearly half of the £5 million to get the project off the ground, said it would not seek to get its money back.

Senior officers from Bradford Council have been involved in talks for the last six months to try to reach an agreement for the Council to buy St Peter's House, in the first instance as a base for the Youth Exchange Project.

But Mark Carriline, the Council's assistant chief executive for education, community and social care, has revealed that the talks have failed because valuations did not match.

He warned members of the Young Exchange Steering Group that the Council would not be able to move the project forward.

"It is a matter of deep regret that we have not been able to bring this excellent project to fruition," he said.

The building is owned by the Cathedral but the Millennium Commission still has an interest in it because of its funding for the Life Force project.