Gaming company chairman and chief executive Steve Wynn disclosed the negotiations during a teleconference with analysts about the company's first- quarter results Thursday morning Hong Kong time.

Gradually, the company has been fleshing out its second project in the enclave, a resort complex that would sit next to the HK$8 billion City of Dreams development amid the mega-casinos under construction in the reclamation area between Taipa and Coloane islands.

Wynn promised to put his cards on the table by the next quarterly call.

Phase one of the company's first Macau project - the US$1.1 billion Wynn Macau casino hotel in the shadow of the Lisboa Hotel on the main peninsula - is slated to open September 5.

The company said in March that it had applied to the Macau government for a 21.9-hectare site on the Cotai Strip to develop four hotels, three with casinos. Wynn said Thursday: "I'm talking to Luca di Montezemolo, the chairman of Ferrari, and we're talking about doing one of our hotels as a Ferrari hotel."

Wynn Resorts' only existing property, the Wynn Las Vegas, has an onsite Ferrari dealership that can be visited for US$10 (HK$78) a head. Wynn said Thursday that the showroom sells more Ferraris than any other dealership in the world.

Late last year, Italian sportscar maker Ferrari signed a deal with United Arab Emirates developer Aldar Properties for a Ferrari theme park in Abu Dhabi. The development is to open in 2008 and include a race track, rides, hotels, shops and homes.

Wynn signaled Thursday that his Cotai project will also include convention halls. "A very aggressive convention program ... is going to be part of our land use," he said. "We share some of the other companies' views that Macau has a bright convention future and that we will be able to sustain large amounts of midweek occupancy with groups that will come to Macau for meetings and conventions."

Late last year, he had said his Cotai hotels would ring a mall, commenting that conference centers rarely generate much profit and that he just needed to set up his project near others' halls.

Rival Las Vegas Sands is developing 1.8 million square feet of meeting space in its Cotai resorts.

Wynn said Thursday that the completion of the second phase of the Wynn Macau had been pushed back a quarter to the end of 2007 to allow more time to fine-tune its design after the first phase opens. "Everybody in the gaming industry knows that experience is absolutely the most powerful factor in our success and we have none there," he said.

He added that he is certain the hotel will draw new visitors to the SAR. "I know a lot of our customers want to go to Macau," he said. "What surprised me is the fact that people from America or customers of Wynn Las Vegas want to go to China. They are waiting until we are open to go because they feel that for the first time they will have the kind of facility that is up to their standards."