Bernie Ecclestone has finally admitted what the rest of us knew along, that the main reason behind his desire to introduce night racing to Formula One is money.

With South Korea having already concluded a deal, and Singapore imminent, Ecclestone continues to look to Asia in his quest to make Formula One a true World Championship - ignoring the fact that there is little interest in the USA.

"I've always been very much mindful of 'Go East, rather than go West. he told the New Straits Times. "The only problem we have with going East is with the television. We lose so much television in Europe because of the time change. So I've been urging the people to look at floodlighting the circuits in order to have the race at night.

"It will be nice, for example, for people to come on Saturday and Sunday at four o'clock and see some of the other races, and then stay on for the F1 race which could start at 7.30pm or 8pm. It will be good for this part of the world, and it will be prime time on television for us in Europe."

Asked what the criteria is for choosing circuits, or indeed countries to join up to the F1 dream, Ecclestone continued: "Well, that depends on where we think we ought to be.

"We also go to places where the Governments are supportive and get behind it," he admitted. "It's like the Olympic Games where the countries bid for it - we've got a lot of countries waiting for us to have races there.

"We're going to have races in South Korea, Russia and India in three years' time," he revealed. "We're also going to have a race in Abu Dhabi in 2009. So, there will be two races in that part of the world. And now we're dealing with Singapore too."

"We will have 20 races within the next three years. It will probably be increased to 18 or 19 next year," he said, which will comes as new to the majority of team bosses."

Asked if so many races might dilute interest in the sport, Ecclestone said: "People follow football and there are millions of matches. So I don't know.

"What we have to do is extend the championship period," he added. "At the moment we have a four-and-a-half month off period, so we can start a bit earlier and end a bit later."