The government of the British-territory of the Cayman Islands in the Caribbean has refused permission for a cruise liner carrying hundreds of homosexual holidaymakers to dock there. The authorities claimed there was no guarantee that, as they put it, the group would uphold appropriate standards of behaviour. Andrew Bolton reports from Miami.

The decision has provoked anger among civil rights and gay groups in the United States, from where the ship is due to depart. One of the organisers said the boat would only have called in the Cayman Islands for seven hours, to allow the passengers to go shopping or to scuba dive.

He described the ban as sheer prejudice. "we've never had this kind of response from anywhere else in the Caribbean", he said. For its part, the government of the islands remains unrepetent.

In a letter explaining the decision of the authorities, the tourism minister said landing rights were being denied because of what he called careful research and prior experience. The minister added that the authorities regretted that they could not, as he put it, offer their hospitality to the visitors.