THE Edinburgh festival season has yet to begin officially, but already a row has broken out.

A theatrical exchange of harsh words has followed an opinionated speech by one of the leading figures of the Fringe, who called for the event to be merged with the Edinburgh International Festival.

William Burdett Coutts, artistic director of the Assembly Theatre, last night said he believed the festival of theatre, classical music, opera, and dance was "backward" and needed to be amalgamated with the Fringe.

The Fringe - a feast of comedy, music, and drama - sold more than a million tickets last year and begins this Sunday, a week before the Festival.

Mr Burdett Coutts, whose company is celebrating 25 years of programming on the Fringe, believes the dates should be co-ordinated, as well as the marketing of the events.

He said it was the perfect time to think of such a merger, as Brian McMaster, the director of the international festival, has his last year in post in 2006.

"I think the Edinburgh Festival is the greatest live event in the world, but I question whether it has any direction, " he said.

"While the Fringe keeps growing and goes from strength to strength, the international festival seems stuck on a backward-looking formula, which doesn't embrace the entirety of what Edinburgh is about.

"It's time the two organisations started working together;

not least to bring the dates of the festival back into conjunction, but as importantly to more effectively market the event to the world."

His speech, at the launch of his programme where he revealed advance ticket sales of more than 70,000 - an Assembly record - provoked an angry response from organisers of the international festival.

A spokeswoman said: "All the festivals in Edinburgh are already working together for the future, and have indeed commissioned a report into the future of the festivals called Thundering Hooves. Perhaps Mr Burdett Coutts would like to contribute his views to that document."

She added: "Each of the specific festivals, the book, the film, the Festival, the jazz, and the Fringe, all have a specific role in the festival season and are run by professionals in their field. Perhaps Bill wants to run all of those festivals as well as the Festival?

"This Festival is in rude health and if he had looked at our programme, he would see three new Scottish plays and six other new productions in there - I fail to see how that could be backward in any way, unless he thinks putting on classical music and opera is backward. It appears he has not read the programme.

"It is no coincidence that he says things like this at the same time every year and it is called grandstanding."

Paul Gudgin, director of the Fringe, said: "I disagree with Bill on this. I think one of the reasons that Edinburgh has been so successful as a festival city is the fact that all the festivals have distinct identities and can grow and develop at their own rate.

"For example, one of the biggest boosts to the Fringe was when the book festival became an annual event. All the festivals have their own ways of working, but there is no doubt we need, and are, working together to move forward."

Mr Gudgin said merging the two organisations would lose some of the excitement of each event, as well as making programming more difficult.