London's New Year's Eve celebrations have been put on ice well ahead of the champagne after the plans for the 12-hour party collapsed into feuding and recrimination.

An angry Ken Livingstone announced on Monday that the multi-million pound event would be scrapped, blaming the multitude of agencies involved - and London Underground in particular.

Livingstone, making no attempt to hide his contempt for those he saw as being responsible, said: "We have done everything to meet our responsibilities for safety. However, with the time remaining, the infrastructural issues still had to be resolved and with the commercial proposition diminishing, a decision needed to be made. This hasn't been an easy decision but I believe it would be irresponsible for me to let the event go ahead."

He added: "If the transport had got sorted, people would then ask what would we do if an asteroid hit London. People were cautious and were working within a legalistic framework."

A spokesman for Bob Geldof, whose 10Alps company was organising the event, said: "Bob has organised events like this in cities all over the world and there the attitude has always been one of 'can do'. In London he found himself sat in a room with 60 different bodies and most of them found ways of stopping things happening. In the end he had to say to Ken - of whom he is very supportive - that he couldn't take responsibility for what would happen because every time he arranged something the ground rules would change."

The multi-million pound event had foundered because the GLA, several London boroughs, train and bus companies, unions, police and emergency services, park and port authorities could not agree on crowd safety issues.

Trevor Phillips, the Labour chairman of the GLA and opponent of Livingstone, called for an inquiry into the fiasco. "Many Londoners will be extremely disappointed at this news. People will want to know why, at this late stage, arrangements were not clear and had not been worked out."

London Underground bosses, smarting from the mayor's latest attack on their competence, said: "The mayor may be mayor of London but we have to run the underground and we have to do that safely," said a spokesman. "We would not put on a service if it put people in danger."

Bob Neill, leader of the GLA Conservative group, said: "It is extraordinary that every other major city in the world can successfully and safely celebrate New Year, except London."