Labour and Home Affairs Minister Terry Lister has said he did not say "lazy Bermudians" were responsible for the Island needing so many foreign workers.

He called on all Bermudians to "pull their weight" and get a job, and said it was not acceptable for some Bermudians to choose to be unemployed.

For every Bermudian who was unemployed, he had to sign a work permit for a foreign worker, and he called on relatives of the jobless to put pressure on them to train and get a job.

Mr. Lister took offence to a Bermuda Sun story on Wednesday that stated he believed that "lazy Bermudians are adding to the influx of foreign workers" - although the newspaper did not attribute this as a direct quote to the minister.

Mr. Lister said the reporter had already acknowledged she had made a mistake in the story, although last night the newspaper disputed this.

"What I said was that Bermudians need to pull their weight. We need all in the workforce to do their share to make the country grow, and we can't afford to have people sitting around not doing their part," said Mr. Lister at a press conference on Wednesday.

"One consequence is our moving towards the Alternatives to Incarceration programme to keep them in the workforce rather than in jail.

"Our concern is to the many people who are not working by choice and we want these people to get into the workforce and do their part.

"When you say `Bermudians are lazy', Bermudians are offended by it because Bermudians who work, work as hard as people in any other country.

"When you use the term `lazy Bermudians' then we stretch it to 29,000 hard working people, and I invite the Press to be very careful about how you address people.

"There are hard-working people up and down the country, and there are others who are not pulling their weight."

He said for every new Bermuda Housing Corporation house that was built to deal with the homeless problem, he signed a work permit for foreign worker, meaning the housing crisis had actually got worse.

"We need every Bermudian working and pulling their weight," added Mr. Lister.

Acting Bermuda Sun editor Bob Amesse said last night: "I have spoken to the reporter and she has assured me she did not say to the Minister she had made a mistake.

"The Minister called on Bermudians who were not working to `pull their weight' which should surely be interpreted as him calling these particular people lazy.

"However he did not say all Bermudians were lazy, nor did we quote him as saying this directly."