The government says it will forge ahead with its public transport reform despite fresh threats by the Transport Federation to strike over the proposed white taxi reform.

While the federation yesterday warned Transport Minister Austin Gatt to stick to what was agreed upon at the end of the last strike, the ministry urged the federation to come up with reform suggestions instead of threats because the public was eager for reform.

The federation's ominous warning follows the launch on Saturday of a consultation document on the reform of the white taxi service.

During the launch of the consultation document, Dr Gatt severely criticised the present white taxi system, calling it a "cartel", and proposed that the number of licences go up from the present 250 to 700.

Yesterday, however, the federation reminded the government that when the transport strike had ended last July, it was agreed that a study of the market would be carried out.

If the studies showed that the market needed more permits to meet the demand, that would be discussed.

Instead, the ministry forged ahead without any such study, the federation said, echoing the stand taken by the Association of White Taxis.

The ministry, however, insisted that the consultation process should be an open one and that the public should feel free to express its opinion on how the reform should be without being conditioned by the federation's threats.

The ministry insisted that the threatening attitude, "continuously adopted by a particular faction within the federation", was in itself a clear justification for the sector's liberalisation. But the federation stressed that the government's proposal to increase taxi permits to 700 clearly showed it had "not carried out studies evaluating what the Maltese market can actually support".

During the winter season, it complained, there is usually not enough business to go around for the 200 white taxis, let alone 700.

However, it added somewhat contradictorily, that the taxi sector was not made up of just 200 white taxis but included over 2,000 taxi services, among then black and grey taxis, and the red and white mini-vans.

On this basis, the federation maintained that Maltese commuters already had a wide choice in transport, as well as tariffs.