Oxford University launched on Wednesday what it described as its "most important" ever fundraising campaign to put it on a financial par with top US universities such as Harvard and Yale.

Some 20,000 people have donated a total of 575 million pounds to the ancient university in the last four years but officials aim to secure nearly double that in the years to come.

Vice-chancellor John Hood launched the initiative in central London alongsidealumni Roger Bannister, the first athlete to break the four-minute mile barrier, Monthy Python star Michael Palin and scientist Richard Dawkins.

Hood said the campaign was "the most sustained, coordinated fundraising effort ever undertaken by a European university".

"It is a campaign driven by the university and by its colleges. It must significantly increase the university's endowment if it is to establish a strong philanthropic foundation for the future," he added.

In the financial year 2006-7, Oxford's income was 676 million pounds with total expenditure 674 million pounds, according to university figures.

Endowments to the 40 or so colleges that make up the university amounted to some 2.7 billion pounds.

But senior university officials are concerned that its funding is dwarfed by big money donations to the top US "Ivy League" universities, putting it at a disadvantage when it seeks to attract the world's best academics and students.

Oxford said it would use the hoped-for 1.25 billion pounds in donations to fund to "sustain and enhance" its worldwide reputation and provide "security in a world of uncertain state funding and growing global competition".

The money will go towards a new campus, library and accommodation plus overhaul the 800-year-old institution's colleges as well as finance new fellowships.

The Saudi billionaire Wafic Said has donated 25 million pounds to expand the existing Said Business School, which is based at the university. Most donations have been under 25,000 pounds.
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