Hong Kong - Hong Kong's government is spending hundreds of thousands of US dollars looking for a new logo to replace its current moniker of "Asia's World City," a news report said Sunday.

The former British colony's government has spent 160,000 US dollars hiring the public relations' firm Fleishmann-Hillard to supervise the task, the Sunday Morning Post reported.

Another 64,000 US dollars is now being spent setting up a website for people to put forward their ideas on a new logo and image for the city of 6.9 million.

Hundreds of thousands more are expected to be spent to promote the new nickname, which will compete against other slogans in the region such as Malaysia Truly Asia.

The Hong Kong government spent 1.1 million US dollars in 2001 relaunching itself as Asia's World City with a dragon logo, a controversial exercise criticized by many as a waste of money.

The slogan has since often been used sarcastically to bash Hong Kong when it fails to live up to its self-professed image as a cosmopolitan international city. (dpa)