Britain's hopes of hosting the 2005 World Championships all but ended yesterday after the international athletics president ruled out Sheffield replacing London as the host venue.

A meeting between IAAF president Lamine Diack ended in disappointment for British Culture Secretary Tessa Jowell and Sports Minister Richard Caborn.

Diack ruled out any change of venue in Britain - insisting the bidding process for the 2005 event must now reopen and clearing the way for Berlin, Sydney, Budapest, Tokyo and Stuttgart to compete to hold the Championships.

Berlin has already declared itself ready to host the championships. "Berlin offers ideal conditions," local government sports minister Klaus Boeger wrote on Friday in an open letter to German Athletics Federation (DLV) president Clemens Prokop.

"The modernised Olympic stadium will be available and will meet all the standards required to host the competitions," he added.

Berlin's Olympic stadium, which was built for the 1936 Games, is currently undergoing a major facelift. It will be used for the 2006 soccer World Cup finals in Germany.

Diack's decision follows Thursday's decision by the British Government to scrap plans to hold the event at a new stadium at Picketts Lock in north-east London.

Diack did make it clear that Sheffield could enter a bid of their own, but Jowell and Caborn have not yet decided whether to take that course of action.

IAAF spokesman Giorgio Reineri said the new bidding process will open at the council meeting in November and will be likely to last until the subsequent council meeting in March.

Diack told the ministers that only the federation's ruling council could authorise a change of venue and they could do so only by opening the championships to new bids.