The Tokyo Metropolitan Government has decided to scrap a plan to secure funds for construction of the Tokyo Metropolitan Peace Memorial Hall under next year's budget.

Sources said the decision effectively freezes the plan to construct the museum commemorating those who died in the air raids on Tokyo during World War II. The hall had been slated to open by the end of fiscal 2001.

The sources cited disagreement among metro assembly members and citizens over planned exhibitions for the hall as well as the metro government's current financial straits as reasons for the decision.

Instead, the metro government plans to complete construction of a monument commemorating victims of the Great Tokyo Air Raid on March 10, 1945, they said.

The Tokyo Metropolitan Peace Memorial Hall was to be constructed at Yokoamicho Park in Sumida Ward at an estimated cost of 3.8 billion yen.

Construction of the hall was to start in 2000 and finish in 2001.

The metro government had planned to display not only items salvaged from the city after the air raids but also items showing the atrocities committed by Japan in other parts of Asia during the war. This idea was criticized by some assembly members and others as being "self-tormenting."

In March, the metro government proposed earmarking 25 million yen from the 1999 budget for building the hall, and the request was approved by the assembly.

But at the same time, the assembly adopted a resolution demanding a review of planned exhibits and requiring the metro government to have its final decision approved by the assembly.

Tokyo Gov. Shintaro Ishihara told an assembly session in July that he would respect the resolution.

But a metro government financial reform plan compiled the same month called for a halt to the building of new facilities, prompting the freeze of the hall's construction, they said.