CAIRO, Dec 24 (AFP) -

Hundreds of Egyptian and French experts are working day and night to prepare the desert for multimedia artist Jean-Michel Jarre's millennium extravaganza at the Giza Pyramids.

As teams of technicians put the finishing touches to the stage, framed by two giant columns of loudspeakers, labourers were covering the desert sand with the last pieces of wooden flooring early Friday for up to 50,000 visitors on Millennium Eve.

"Everyone's working on this together, it's not just the project of one man," Jarre said at the scene as projections of irridescent blue lighting were tested on the pyramids.

Other workers were erecting 15 exclusive viewing tents where President Hosni Mubarak and other officials will watch the show along with over 7,000 others with 400 dollars to spend on a ticket.

Fifteen-dollar ticket holders will fill thousands of square metres of wooden flooring between the tents and the stage.

The Frenchman's concert, entitled "The Twelve Dreams of the Sun," is Egypt's only official millennial celebration near the pyramids and is due to last from sundown December 31 until dawn January 1.

Egypt was forced to cancel the highlight of the show -- a scene in which a light-emitting golden capstone was to be placed atop the largest of the three pyramids -- following an outcry by Egyptians.

Some complained the capstone was a Masonic symbol while others feared it could damage the pyramid's surface.

Officials hope Jarre's concert will give an added boost to Egyptian tourism which has been recovering from a string of attacks by Islamists who culminated in 1997 with the massacre of 58 foreign tourists in Luxor.

Egypt is promoting the 9.5-million-dollar event as marking the start of its own seventh millennium, but it also coincides with the holy Muslim fasting month of Ramadan.

Out of respect for Ramadan, the opera will start in a low-key way at sundown, when Muslims conduct prayers before breaking the daytime fast and there will be discreet lighting and music inspired by mystical Muslim chants.

Alongside Jarre, Egyptian musicians and dancers will perform and the music of the late Egyptian diva Um Kalthoum will be played. Jarre has pledged her voice would not be modified electronically.

The French musician would not disclose how much he was being paid for the night.