Altavista, one of the world's largest Internet search engines, is in talks with IDA Ireland about transferring a portion or all of its Web-hosting facilities from London to the Republic.

The company's search engines for Europe, Middle East and Africa are hosted from a large data centre in London. However, it recently issued a private tender document inviting carriers and co-location facilities in the Republic to offer quotes on the cost of hosting its Irish search index.

The tender document, which has been seen by Business This Week, outlines Altavista's needs for co-location space. The company is also seeking details of the individual strategies of co-location facilities for providing Internet connectivity to Europe, the Middle East and Africa. It has requested first refusal on co-location space of equal size to its initial build-out to enable expansion.

It is understood between eight and 10 blue-chip hosting companies present in the Republic are working on the tender. According to telecoms sources, the low cost of bandwidth in the Republic, facilitated by the Government's initiative with large players Global Crossing and 360 Networks, is likely to prove attractive to Altavista.

An IDA spokesman yesterday confirmed the agency was in discussions with Altavista regarding a number of different projects, including a bid to lure the company's lucrative hosting contract to the Republic.

A decision by Altavista to relocate some of its Web-hosting servers to the Republic would give a huge boost to Government e-commerce strategy.

Altavista is rolling out country-specific Web search engines in 30 countries. Last month it launched an Irish search engine and revealed it was establishing a multi-million-pound European administration centre in Dublin.

The company has decided to centralise the finance and sales functions for its European and international operations in Dublin, and has begun recruiting.