It was a relatively tame exchange between the Prime Minister and the Opposition Leader in their first post-Budget face-to-face on RTK radio yesterday even though the temperature seemed to rise in connection with Austin Gatt's recent controversial comments.

The Investments Minister was in the news recently following a brief speech at the Nationalist Party's general council.

Dr Gatt said that before the Labour leader publicly assured everyone that his bizarre speech on the Independence Day was nothing more than a "bad joke", his performance could have qualified him for a feature on Altered Statesmen - a documentary series on the Discovery channel which investigates political leaders who have had bouts of alcoholism or substance abuse.

The day after the incident Dr Sant filed a request for a criminal libel against Dr Gatt.

During yesterday's debate, Dr Sant interrupted noisily and accused the Prime Minister of applauding Dr Gatt's speech. While Dr Gonzi described the minister's comments as "wrong", he failed to reply to his persistent claim that he had applauded Dr Gatt's speech.

The rest of the programme was characterised by acrimony over the Budget, with Dr Sant starting and signing off his commentary with Labour's official slogan: "too little, too late".

"This is another one of your bad suggestions," Dr Gonzi retorted at one point, reminding the listeners of the Opposition's proposal to devalue the lira three years ago.

He said: "If I were to listen to you I would open the floodgates and destroy what we did in the past three years... It would jam the economy, just as you had done when you were Prime Minister."