Row in Canada over helicopter contract

A political row has broken out in Canada over an announcement by the government that it is awarding a helicopter contract worth more than four-hundred-million dollars to a consortium including GKN Westland of Britain and Agusta of Italy.

The contract to provide fifteen Cormorant search-and-rescue helicopters comes four years after the Canadian government cancelled a three-billion dollar deal with the same consortium for fifty helicopters.

Cancelling that deal cost Canada more than three hundred million dollars in penalties, and right-wing opponents of the Liberal Prime Minister, Jean Chretien, have now accused him of, in effect, making the Canadian taxpayer pay twice for the same helicopters.

From the newsroom of the BBC World Service