Vilnius  - Vilnius' year as one of two European Capitals of Culture (ECC) was supposed to be a chance to showcase the Lithuanian capital to the rest of the world - but less than three months into 2009, the title seems to have become as much a curse as a blessing.

The project has seen its funding slashed, a police raid on its administrative office, staff laid off, and the sacking of its director, Elona Bajoriniene.

On March 4, Vilnius was snubbed by representatives of other capitals of culture who cancelled a planned meeting in Vilnius when they heard of Bajoriniene's dismissal.

"We regret the decision of the Lithuanian administration to cut the budget by 40 percent and remove Elona Bajoriniene from the position of director," said an open letter signed by ten current, future and previous cultural capitals issued in the Austrian city of Linz, which shares the 2009 ECC honour with Vilnius.

"We are convinced that these steps have serious negative consequences - not only for Vilnius and Lithuania with regard to its prestige in Europe, but also the format for the European Capital of Culture as a whole," the letter said.

The spectacular firework show arranged by German artist Gert Hof that launched the year-long festival on January 1 now looks as if it may be the high point of a programme that could run out of money well before December 31.

And with the Lithuanian economy floundering, the pressure to cut costs has been intense.

The centre-right coalition government headed by Andrius Kubilius won power on a promise to put Lithuania's finances in order, and has slashed the central government budget for "Vilnius 2009" from 40 million litas (14.5 million dollars) to 25 million litas - and the cuts may not end there.

On March 3, Vilnius city council said it would be contributing just 5 million litas (1.8 million dollars), a sum even deputy mayor Gintautas Babravicius admitted was meagre.

"We agree that 5 million litas does not meet with what might once have been expected ... this is indeed a very modest amount," Babravicius told reporters.

Just a week earlier, the municipality said around twice that amount would be available.

Rolando Kvietkausko, who replaced Bajoriniene as director of Vilnius 2009 said 11 administrative staff would lose their jobs as part of further cost-cutting measures and suggested the project could come to an early conclusion in June or July.

To add to Vilnius' woes, the national airline FlyLAL went bankrupt in January, meaning even those visitors wantint to come to Vilnius now face something of an obstacle course.

FlyLAL was "Vilnius 2009"s official carrier, supposed to bring in artists from across the continent, so the sudden end of its operations has created a logistics nightmare.

Overnight Vilnius lost direct services to Amsterdam, Brussels, Budapest, London, Madrid, Moscow, Frankfurt, Milan and Dublin.

Laura Gudzineviciute, a spokesperson for Vilnius 2009 said the situation was now being addressed.

"The negotiation process with other airlines regarding direct flights to Vilnius has begun," she told Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa.

"The institutions responsible are taking intensive cooperation action to safeguard the national program as a whole and to implement planned activities. We remain positive," she said.

However, Vilnius' woes don't seem to have reduced enthusiasm about being an ECC among Lithuania's Baltic neighbours, despite their economies being hit even harder by the global meltdown.

The Estonian capital, Tallinn will be a capital of culture in 2011 and one of three Latvian cities - Riga, Liepaja or Cesis - will follow in 2014.

Elena Natale of the Tallinn 2011 Foundation told dpa the Estonian project would learn from Vilnius' experience.

"It is very sad for Vilnius and it's something nobody wanted to happen. I don't know if they will be able to pull through but we want to support them. It's a disaster that came so fast they didn't have time to react," she said.

"We will have to be very careful and work in such a way that any mistakes we make will be very small. Probably there will not be as much money as as thought in the beginning, but it doesn't make us scared of 2011," she added.

Those feelings were shared by Ilona Asare, co-cordinator of the Cesis 2014 bid.

"These difficult times will have an impact on all the next European cultural capitals," she told dpa.

"We are trying to develop our plans in a sustainable way which would help promotion of local entrepreneurship and tourism development."

With a population of just 18,000, Cesis' bid may seem wildly ambitious, but the town has an impressive track record of staging cultural events, including a spectacular celebration of its 800th anniversary in 2006 that made it onto the UNSECO calendar of major events. (dpa)