CAIRO -- Lasers, floodlights and fireworks lit up the ancient pyramids of Giza at midnight as Egypt greeted the new millennium with a lavish electronic concert that officials said drew more than 120,000 people.

French composer Jean-Michel Jarre laid on an extravaganza of song, dance and music featuring 1,000 performers entitled "The Twelve Dreams of the Sun." Mist that partly obscured the 4,500-year-old pyramids was the only glitch.

Security forces, including policemen on camels, blanketed the desert plateau as President Hosni Mubarak watched the show, which has angered some Islamists and archaeological purists.

The government is hoping that pulling off a celebration on this scale will crown its two-year-old drive to rebuild Egypt's image as a safe tourist destination after Moslem militants massacred 58 holidaymakers in Luxor in November 1997.

Shortly before midnight, Jarre paid tribute to the late Egyptian diva Um Kalthoum. "She's one of the reasons I love Egypt and why I'm here tonight," he told the crowd as a giant image of the singer's face was projected onto a pyramid.

Across the Nile in Cairo, dense crowds gathered on the Corniche to watch a flotilla of sailing boats decked out with white lights and balloons ply the river.

Children and young people wore party hats and danced to impromptu drumming as they waited impatiently for a promised performance by Egyptian pop star Mohamed Mounir.

"I was on a trip through Africa but I rushed through Sudan to the pyramids on millennium night 2000. It feels wonderful, it's amazing to be here," said Canadian Misha de Wilde.

An Interior Ministry official said 115,000 people crammed into the standing area at the foot of the pyramids, more than double the number expected. Some 8,500 wealthier people were wined and dined in luxury tents at $400 a head.

PYRAMIDS AN IRRESISTIBLE VENUE

Jarre's concert attracted visitors from all over the world.

"I came especially for the celebration," said a Chinese woman named Rong Lin. "We don't get such an opportunity easily."

Jochen Thelf, a German investment banker who lives in London, said: "It seems just a great place to be. Two thousand years of history and the millennium seem to go well together."

Many young Egyptians were also delighted to be partying at the pyramids, which are now well into their fifth millennium.

"It feels really interesting. I'm really anxious to see what will happen in the next millennium," said Nirvana Zaher, 14.

Not everyone was happy with the celebration, which has drawn fire from Islamists, who have attacked it as a Masonic-Zionist conspiracy damaging to Islam and Egypt's national dignity.

"Devil worship at the millennium party profanes the sanctity of Ramadan," ran a headline on Friday in the Islamist Al-Shaab newspaper, keeping up its campaign against the festivities.

The music began well after sunset when Moslems break their daylong fast in the holy month of Ramadan now in its final days.

Two giant Ramadan lanterns flanked the 50-metre (yard) wide stage. Jarre incorporated Moslem chants and traditional Egyptian dancing as well as Western rhythms into his high-tech show.

The Culture Ministry scrapped controversial plans to lower a golden sheath by helicopter to cap the Great Pyramid at midnight.

Islamists had decried the capstone as a Masonic symbol and some archaeological purists also dismissed the plan as an unworthy gimmick, arguing that ancient monuments should not be used as a backdrop for noisy concerts and publicity stunts.