An Opposition Minister has called on Government to keep its hands off a deal to redevelop the former US Naval Annex in Southampton.

Shadow Development Minister Allan Marshall said he wanted his opposite number to stay away from negotiations to sign a deal to build a leisure and tourism facility.

He claimed Development and Opportunity Minister Terry Lister had interfered in the plans and Mr. Marshall said he wanted him to hand the talks back to Bermuda Land Development Company, who were originally handling the deal.

"This is a BLDC project, the Minister should keep his hands off it and let them conclude the negotiations,'' Mr. Marshall said.

"He is interfering on a personal basis. There are professionals at BLDC who have been working on it -- let them get on with their job.'' Mr. Marshall alleged that the Minister had "short circuited'' BLDC in his talks with BEAM -- who have been given a period of time to come up with a proposal for the site.

"We are concerned that the only conclusion that will transpire from the Minister's micro-managing of the BLDC effort is additional years wasted before anything happens there that will offer job opportunities to our people.'' Mr. Marshall demanded to know what the deal entailed, how it benefited the country and how long BEAM were going to be given to come up with a final programme for the land.

Previously, Mr. Lister said the scheme would be phased in over a number of years, with the first part including housing, golf, a village centre and ferry dock.

But Mr. Marshall said the details that had been released led him to believe that the proposed development was an "exclusive estate for the rich and famous''. He said the comments from Mr. Lister left more questions than answers, asking if BEAM had secured financing and when it had to be in place by. In addition, he queried what the contingency plan was if the backing did not come through.

The Smith's North MP also asked what had happened to the clean- up of the environmental waste left by the US forces. "The Minister is obviously hoping he can get the USA to clean it up,'' he said.