Grapevine: Ecclestone denies Singapore GP deal

"We haven't entered into any agreement with anyone at the moment," the Briton told Reuters.

Ecclestone, 76, said he had been talking to interested parties in Singapore for three years but rejected media reports in the Far East suggesting that Ong's Hotel Properties had secured the rights.

"I don't know anything about it," he said.

Ecclestone, who would not say who he was talking to in Singapore, added that he was keen on a night-time race but no announcement was imminent.

"I think it would be good, I was the one who suggested night races to them (the Singaporeans), and not only them but other countries in other parts of Asia," added the commercial rights holder.

Shares in Hotel Properties rose as much as 15.8 percent on Friday on local market talk about the deal.

Formula One has 17 races this season but Abu Dhabi is due to host a race, the second in the Middle East, from 2009 on a street circuit using part of the harbour side. South Korea has also been scheduled for 2010.

Ecclestone has talked before about night races in the Far East, which would be far more attractive to the European television companies.

The Malaysian Grand Prix, on the same time as neighbouring Singapore, is broadcast live at a time when many European viewers are still in bed.

"I would like to do one or two night races. It could be good in Japan or China," the Briton told reporters in Abu Dhabi last month.

Circuit designer Hermann Tilke said recently that advances in technology had made the concept of night races, a novelty for Formula One, a realistic proposition.

"The basic problem is lighting," he told the autosport.com last month. "You need a certain amount of brightness in order to allow the cameras to show the cars properly and not as a blurred streak.

"But then again, both in lighting systems and in camera technology, we have seen tremendous developments so I cannot imagine that those would be real problems."