Dr Vivian Balakrishnan, Second Minister for Information, Communications and the Arts says that Singapore's hopes of hosting an Formula One race are still very much alive, with commercial negotiations still underway.

The cabinet minister told AFP that "Commercial negotiations are ongoing and in all these commercial transactions you don't really want to show all your cards."

He reinforced the fact that government support would be available, and that the private parties involved had been made aware this.

This follows Minister of State for Trade and Industry, S. Iswaran's statement in parliament that the government was "serious" about the possibility of hosting Formula One races, and F1 boss Bernie Ecclestone's dinner meeting with Singapore hotel & property magnate, Ong Beng Seng.

Mr Ong is seen as the front runner in the bid to bring Formula One racing to Singapore.

Despite a government team making the trip to the season's first race in Melbourne and speculation that an announcement Singapore's F1 future could be due, nothing concrete emerged following the weekend.

The news out of New Dehli today indicated that key business leaders and the authorities were similarly keen on the possibility of hosting a Monaco-style street race, which puts further pressure on the Singapore team to secure the rights to be the 18th circuit on the F1 calendar.