Turkey has secured the support of a local bank to build a dam on a major historic site on the Tigris River, overriding harsh opposition at home and snubs by European lenders.

The head of Turkey's Akbank said last week that the company would help finance the construction, but not without a sense of discomfort for backing a project which, critics say, will displace 54,000 people and submerge millenia-old archaeological remains.

"Banks make only financial considerations when joining such projects... But the Ilisu dam will be the last such example for us... From now on we will pay attention also to environmental aspects," Suzan Sabanci Dincer told the Vatan newspaper.

Another major Turkish bank, Garanti, is also reportedly planning to extend financial support for the construction.

At the core of opposition to the Ilisu dam is Hasankeyf, an impoverished town on the banks of the Tigris, once a mighty city in ancient Mesopotamia, which will be largely submerged by the dam's giant reservoir. Critics say the dam, to be completed with a 1,200-megawatt power plant, will destroy Hasankeyf's unique historical remains and ruin the traditional lifestyle of its population of ethnic Kurds and Arabs.

The local administration, environmental groups and academics, who have joined forces in a vocal campaign to stop the project, gathered in Hasankeyf on April 11 for a conference to drum up support against the government.

"This project threatens 214 archaeological sites," historian Adnan Cevik said, pointing at the ruins of a 13th- century fortress on a hill overlooking the Tigris, dotted by hundreds of ancient cave houses.

"There are remains from prehistoric, Hellenic, Assyrian, Sassanid, Roman and pre-Ottoman times here," he said, as tourists climbed the hill to take respite in the tiny compounds carved into the rocks, which now serve as cafés.

Proponents say the dam, part of a broader plan to boost economic development in the poor, mainly Kurdish southeast, will create up to 10,000 jobs, irrigate vast areas of farmland and provide vital energy for the economy.

But Hasankeyf's 4,000 residents, backed by civic groups, maintain they can prosper on revenues from tourism, pushing a petition campaign to have the town included on Unesco's list of world heritage sites and deter banks from financing the dam.