The European Union would be studying what can be done to boost tourism within the EU, and if Malta were to stay out there would be serious problems for tourism here, the prime minister said last night.

Speaking in a debate with Labour leader Alfred Sant, the last political debate on national television before Saturday's election, Dr Fenech Adami asked whether Dr Sant was so opposed to EU membership because he was afraid that the people would have more of a say.

"Why is Dr Sant afraid of people earning more money and having better conditions of work," he asked.

The hour-long debate was very orderly, with the leaders hardly ever interrupting each other, except for the last two minutes, when Dr Sant heckled the prime minister, who had a tough time making himself heard as he concluded the debate.

Dr Sant started the debate by saying that there were many people who were worried about their future and the environment. He argued that there was another future outside the EU.

Dr Fenech Adami said he agreed with Dr Sant that there were many people who were worried - especially Labourites.

"Dr Sant is the cause of people's worries as they cannot understand the gap that exists between what he says and does," Dr Fenech Adami said.

He reminded Dr Sant that in the Labour leader's 22 months in government, the number of people registering for work had increased by 1,000, no overtime was being done, and some people were not even paid their wages.

Dr Sant said that during his time in office the Bugibba embellishment project was realised and the problem with the San Antnin sewage treatment plant was solved.

He promised a project like Bugibba's every year, to which Dr Fenech Adami replied that the project had cost Lm3 million and all the lamp-posts and railings had to be changed as they were not properly made and had rusted in no time.

Dr Fenech Adami said there had never been a case of 75 journalists writing to a party general secretary expressing concern about how the party leader was treating them.

"The letter to Jimmy Magro complaining about Dr Sant's attitude is very telling. It has never happened before in our country. We have never had a prime minister who walks out of an interview his party has requested," Dr Fenech Adami said.

He said Dr Sant had no arguments and resorted to fabrications and invented figures. The Nationalist government had brought in Lm67 million from new taxes in four-and-a-half years while the MLP had collected Lm60.5 million in just 22 months and would have collected Lm160 million had it spent five years in office.

Dr Sant complained that most of the projects the PN boasted about were still unfinished and those that were finished took too long to be completed. The MLP's manifesto was concrete and offered real solutions, he said.

The Labour leader said it was the MLP which had instilled EU values in Malta, but the party cared about the wishes of the Maltese and would not be dictated to by Brussels.

The country needed a new, responsible direction, where drug traffickers would not be allowed to escape, said Dr Sant.

Dr Fenech Adami said Dr Sant should have the courage to apologise for the violence the Labour Party committed on many people in Malta in the 1980s, and he listed several incidents, ranging from his house being ransacked to the police attacks on PN supporters.

But Dr Sant countered that it was not credible for Dr Fenech Adami to ask for an apology when it was his (Dr Sant's) government which had removed from their posts top police officers who used to be criticised by the PN.

The prime minister said Dr Sant was deceiving people when he said the MLP would hold a referendum between membership and partnership, as everyone had told him that the kind of partnership he was promising was not possible and that the possibility of EU membership would have vanished by that time.

He also accused Dr Sant and the MLP of denying thousands of students the opportunity to study at university.

He said people had realised that the next election was not a normal one being held to simply elect a party to government, but was a crucial one that would determine the country's future for many years to come.