A French circus group due to perform at the Brighton Festival has been turned away because of the foot-and-mouth crisis.

The 16 children, from Amiens in Northern France, were booked in to the youth hostel at Telscombe during the May festival.

However, the Youth Hostels Association has cancelled the group's five-day booking because the hostel is opposite a farm.

The setback comes despite the Government's high-profile bid to promote Britain as "open for business".

Pippa Smith, education manager for the Brighton Festival, made the booking several months ago, securing the whole hostel for five days at a cost of £500.

She said: "How exactly does the YHA think these children are going to be a foot-and-mouth risk?

"The hostel is in a rural area but it is off a main road and up some stone steps. They would be arriving by minibus and performing in the streets of Brighton. They are a professional troupe, they were not going on a rambling holiday."

She added: "The Brighton Children's Circus is visiting Amiens in June to perform at their festival and they are being provided with lovely accommodation. What sort of message is this giving to the French?

"These children are going to be very disappointed. What are they going to tell their parents? That England is closed?

"There is no room at the Brighton hostel for them and there is a strong likelihood we will have to cancel."

A spokeswoman for the Youth Hostels Association said: "We were approached by the stud farm opposite the hostel in Telscombe and asked to close because they were concerned about foot-and-mouth.

"In the spirit of community relations we agreed. Anyone who had already made a booking has been offered accommodation in another of our hostels. If nothing was suitable they were given a full refund."