Cathy Newman The controversy surrounding the millennium celebrations intensified yesterday when the New Millennium Experience Company (NMEC), the group organising the festivities, awarded a pounds 16m advertising account for the project to M&C Saatchi, one of whose partners has been advising the NMEC since February. Bill Muirhead, a partner at M&C Saatchi, has been giving "strategic advice" to the NMEC, the public body set up to run the Greenwich-based millennium celebrations. At present it can only be sold to people in the US with latex allergies, and cannot be advertised as an effective contraceptive.Clearance by the US Food and Drugs Administration is an important breakthrough for LIG. The US condom market is worth around $300m (pounds 190m) a year, more than three times the size of the UK market.Avanti will cost at least twice the price of conventional condoms in the US. Its launch in the US is an attempt by LIG to maintain its market position - Durex is number two brand in the States with a 20 per cent share, behind Carter Wallace, whose Trojan brand has 60 per cent of the US market.. The biggest reason men give for not using latex condoms is that they feel like a Wellington boot," Mr Potter said.Avanti, which has taken six years to pass the US's stringent drug laws because of its unique material and cost pounds 15m to develop, should go on sale in the US in the next few months and be rolled out in the UK in September.

"This condom is clear, doesn't result in allergies like latex and improves sensitivity. They want a safe method of birth control which is under their control. We are developing something with greater aesthetic appeal than Femidom."Women have criticised Femidom, developed by US group, the Female Health Company, for looking and feeling like a plastic bag.The new male condom, called Durex Avanti, has double the tensile strength of conventional latex, but is 40 per cent thinner. The revolutionary new prophalatic will be much thinner, helping to improve sensitivity.

The group is also developing a female condom to rival the much hated Femidom product. Commenting on LIG's female condom, which is in the early stages of development, Bill Potter, London International's scientific director said: "The concept of a female condom is of great interest to women. Sameena Ahmad London International Group, the world's leading condom manufacturer, is poised to secure US approval for the world's first polyurethane condom. The figures were marginally better than some analysts had expected, after last year's full year loss of pounds 5.35m, which included a charge of pounds 8.6m to cover the cost of restructuring and slimming down the business.. But the company, which 10 years ago was one of the strongest quoted companies in the sector, remains beset with problems.It is still nowhere near finding a chief executive to succeed Mike Williamson, chairman and chief executive, when he gives up his executive role at the end of the year.The business is also suffering from the widespread restructuring imposed by the leading car manufacturers which are reducing the number of franchises they deal with, amalgamating territories and demanding heavy capital investment to improve showrooms and customer service.The main losers have been the small privately owned firms which cannot provide the necessary capital investment, but Appleyard has lost two prestigious Jaguar franchises in Leeds and Harrogate and several other outlets have been closed or sold.The statement coincided with the release of figures for six months to the end of June showing a 3 per cent drop in turnover to pounds 380m and a 16 per cent drop in profit before tax to just pounds 3.88m, even including an exceptional profit of pounds 725,000 on the disposal of dealerships.The interim dividend has been cut from 3.1p to 2p. SB fell 60p to 1,074.5p and ICI 31.5p to 1,008p.BSkyB, the satellite television station edged ahead 9.5p to 441p after Salomon Brothers moved from hold to buy and said the shares should be 486p. The trading warning and the revised terms made nonsense of such a strategy.Since hitting a 501.5p peak when excitement over the deal was running high dividends totalling 46.95p have been stripped from the shares.Among blue chips hit by the Footsie collapse were SmithKine Beecham, suffering from claims of overcharging in the US, and Imperial Chemical Industries following negative comments from Dresdner Kleinwort Benson.