Formula One supremo Bernie Ecclestone appears unlikely to accept a compromise proposal of staging next year's Australian Grand Prix in the early evening.

Ecclestone has long touted for the race in Melbourne to become a night event in order to attract a large television audience across Europe.

This year's grand prix on Sunday will start at 3.30pm, 90 minutes later than in previous years, to assess whether there is any merit in an even later start time next year.

In a bid to appease Ecclestone, Australian Grand Prix Corporation chairman Ron Walker said earlier this week: "If starting the race later this year increases the television audience around the world, as we believe it will, we'll seek a 5pm start for the 2009 race.

"That will mean a 7am start time for the television coverage in Europe, finishing at about 8.40am; a 6am start time in the UK, finishing at about 7.40am; and an afternoon start and finish across the Asian continent where there are potentially hundreds of millions of extra viewers.

"All this can be achieved without any additional infrastructure costs."

With Australia's contract due to expire after the 2010 race, there will be no shortage of takers willing to fill their vacated slot on the calendar.

"It needs to be a night race," insisted Ecclestone, speaking to the Sydney Morning Herald.

"It (Walker's plan) doesn't help a lot. That's not really what we're looking for.

"It would be nice if the race was on at midday or 2pm for European audiences, but I guess that would mean it starting in the middle of the night in Australia.

"Obviously, the later it is in Europe the better as far as I am concerned.

"I suppose it is easier getting up at 6am than 3am, so perhaps that's something, but not what we are really looking for."

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