FARMINGTON, Conn. (AP) - University of Connecticut officials say a plan to merge the UConn Health Center in Farmington with Hartford Hospital is unlikely to win official approval.

President Michael J. Hogan told university staff and faculty Friday that a review by the UConn Board of Trustees concluded it cannot win approval for the proposed partnership with Hartford Hospital's parent company.

The merger has come under criticism from Gov. M. Jodi Rell, state lawmakers, other area hospitals and health care unions.

UConn officials had said a partnership would help solve the health center's financial problems and need for a new facility. The plan called for a new 250-bed, $475 million hospital on the Farmington campus.

That facility and Hartford Hospital would have become a two-campus "university hospital."

Hogan says UConn is working with state officials "to assess other options."

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