APEX

I am developing an APEX report with a column link that will call a BI publisher report, the case is the link column in the APEX report will pass the item number to the BI publisher query.

At the moment this is what I am doing:

1- Create a hidden item on top of page zero. (e.g. PARAM1_VALUE)
2- Create a report query and a report layout (For BI Publisher) in the Shared Components. (e.g ITEM_REPORT)
3- Include the state session in the report query and reference that item in the query. (e.g. SELECT * FROM items where item_number = :PARAM1_VALUE)
4- Create an APEX report displaying orders with the item number as a link column.
5- In the Link column I set the report URL request to be "PRINT_SERVER=ITEM_REPORT".
6- In addition I set the PARAM1_VALUE to be #ITEM_NUMBER# on the link.

When I press on the link the BI publisher report prints but it doesn't display anything except the Headers, my understanding is that PARAM1_VALUE is not set with the item_number value when I press on the link and thus the query returns no results as when I remove the condition from the query i can see the report printing.

Please help as this is urgent