A DEBT-RIDDEN zoo was warned by a council yesterday that it faced closure unless it produced a viable financial plan within six weeks.

The owners of Glasgow Zoo were told by Glasgow City Council's licensing committee that they had until October 30 to submit the plan and written responses to concerns about conditions at the zoo.

They were warned that failure to do so would result in their licence being revoked, leading to its closure.

The zoo includes lions, tigers, a rhinoceros, birds of prey and reptiles among its attractions.

The warning follows the publication earlier this week of a council report which severely criticised conditions at the zoo, which is believed to have debts of more than (pounds) 3m.

After investigations revealed animals were being housed in poor conditions, council insiders yesterday admitted that the zoo was ''getting to the end of the road''.

A council spokesman said: ''The mood has changed. The licensing committee is getting increasingly fed-up with the attitude of the zoo, who think it's acceptable to turn up at these meetings without any concrete answers to their problems.

''It is not - action has got to be taken, sooner rather than later.''

A team of health and safety experts from Glasgow City Council said in a report that conditions at the 100-acre zoo had deteriorated, highlighting potholes on walkways leaving them unsafe, with animal enclosures in urgent need of repair.

The council extended the park's licence on April 19 but carried out the further inspections after concerns about

infestations of rats.

Animal welfare groups such as Advocates for Animals have previously called for the closure of the zoo after claiming that conditions there were ''squalid''.

It is understood that the council has already fielded inquiries from animal welfare groups about the future of the zoo's exhibits should it be closed down.

Officials have now been instructed to draw up contingency plans if the zoo is closed and the animals have to be rehoused.

Commenting on the council's warning, Roger Edwards, director of the zoo, said: ''This is the result of a political campaign by animal rights groups. We have a long-term plan worked out but I am not yet in a position to discuss the details.''

Mr Edwards said earlier this year that the zoo was ''an important educational and cultural resource for the city, which would be poorer without it.''

Writing in a newspaper, he said the zoo was trying to look after the animals to the best of its ability with the resources it had, adding that the halting of local authority grants meant it was losing (pounds) 200,000 a year.

He also blamed an ''interminable delay'' in releasing green belt land which would have helped clear its debts and given the zoo a development fund of about (pounds) 1.5m.

However, Baillie Chris Mason, who attended yesterday's meeting, said there was no room for two zoos in central Scotland.

He said: ''There is scope for one good zoo across the central belt and we have that in Edinburgh. It may be sad, but it's the truth.

''There just isn't the catchment area to sustain a large zoo and a small zoo.''

The council's warning was welcomed last night by Les Ward, director of Advocates for Animals, who said: ''We are pleased that the council share many of our concerns and we think it is right that they have now, in a way, put this ultimatum to the zoo.

''If they are unable to bring the zoo to an appropriate standard, it is only right that, if necessary, efforts are made to close the zoo down and have a working party established to find homes for the animals.

''This has happened through years of neglect and lack of funding. The situation has been allowed to deteriorate over the years and it is clear from what the council is saying that enough is enough. It cannot go on like this. It is doing nothing for the reputation of the city of Glasgow, never mind the zoo.''

He added: ''If Glasgow Zoo can come up with a viable package, then it is right that that should be looked at properly. But if it depends on whether or not they get money for selling off land for housing - and there is real doubt that they would get permission because it is on green belt land -I think they will have to come up with more than that.''

The 50-year-old zoo has deteriorated rapidly since the foot-and-mouth outbreak led to its temporary closure. The death last year of Richard O'Grady, its director, was another major blow.