A CITY bid to win the European Capital of Culture title has won the backing of its next-door neighbour.

Durham County Council is the latest to sign a concordat "Backing the Buzz" to support the Newcastle and Gateshead £100m attempt to beat the challenges of Liverpool, Birmingham, Bristol, Cardiff and Oxford to take centre stage in 2008. It has joined the campaign in the hope of benefiting from the predicted 17,000 jobs created and millions in tourist spending.

The council's Labour leader, Ken Manton, said: "We have some of the best tourist attractions in the whole of the country and many of them are unknown, except to local people.''

Within easy reach are Beamish Museum, which enjoyed a boom in numbers during the National Garden Festival at Gateshead in 1990, and Durham City with its cathedral and castle, which is a World Heritage Site.

But officials hope that visitors will find their way to lesser-known attractions including the county's cleaned-up coastline, Shildon's Timothy Hackworth Museum, dedicated to railway heritage, Barnard Castle's Bowes Museum, the Durham Dales and the country park being created at Hardwick Hall, Sedgefield.

Sir Ian Wrigglesworth, chairman of the Newcastle Gateshead Initiative, which is spearheading the bid, said: "County Durham will tie in with themes in our bid including Christian heritage and railway heritage.''