BERLIN — Germany's Expo 2000 world fair suffered a major blow on Wednesday just 50 days before it opens when the United States pulled out after failing to find backers for a national pavilion.
Organizers of the Expo, the biggest ever featuring displays from over 190 countries, said they were disappointed but still optimistic the five-month extravaganza would attract millions of visitors.
German President Johannes Rau, visiting the Expo 2000 site near the city of Hannover, said the fair would be incomplete without the U.S. presence. "It is clearly a loss," Rau told reporters. "But the Expo can and will succeed."
The United States withdrew after months of uncertainty in which plans to build a $35 million "Main Street" covering 9,600 square yards were replaced with a more modest "virtual journey" from the 18th century to the present.
But U.S. Commissioner for Expo William D. Rollnick was unable even to raise funds for the backup project, leaving hamburger giant McDonald's — which has won catering rights — as the main American presence at the fair.
Rollnick said in a statement issued by the U.S. Embassy in Berlin that "despite considerable effort to attract private sector support . . . the U.S. will not be able to have a U.S. national pavilion at Expo 2000."
Expo chief Birgit Breuel was quoted in a local newspaper as saying she no longer saw any basis for an official participation by the United States.
Hannover's mayor, Herbert Schmalstieg, was more blunt. "This constant to-ing and fro-ing has been just unbearable," he told the Hannoversche Allgemeine daily. "Nobody will miss the USA."
Although the United States has a long tradition of hosting trade fairs — the last was in New York in 1964 — Washington is barred by law from backing Expo displays with taxpayers' money.
An Expo spokesman said that, while organizers were saddened by the U.S. withdrawal, there was no danger of other countries following suit ahead of the June 1 launch date.
Spokesman Udo Iwannek also said advance bookings were going well, with two million tickets already sold and more than 13 million more placed with marketing partners.
Despite the collapse of the U.S. project, golf legend Arnold Palmer will remain the Expo's official ambassador to the United States and will inaugurate the official Expo golf course in May, Iwannek said.
In addition to the national pavilions, the Expo will have an extensive cultural program featuring a 21-hour performance of Goethe's Faust, a concert by rock star Carlos Santana and Irish dancer Michael Flatley's "Feet of Flames" show.
Veteran German rockers The Scorpions will also team up with the Berlin Philharmonic orchestra to perform the official Expo anthem "Moment of Glory."
Expo even has its own mascot, a Picasso-esque cartoon figure called Twipsy.