MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Former Falklands Governor in political row.

The former Governor of the Falkland Islands, Mr Richard Ralph, now Ambassador to Romania, has become a central figure in a political “sleaze” row in the United Kingdom over the sale of a Romanian steel company, which is getting big media headlines.

Mr Ralph wrote a letter for the Prime Minister, Tony Blair, to send to the Romanian Prime Minister, Adrian Nastase, approving the 300-million (425-million dollar) sale of the State-owned Romanian company, Sidex steelworks, to a company called LNM. This is run by an Indian billionaire, Lakshmi Mittal, who, it has been revealed, had previously made donations totalling 140-thousand pounds (about 200-thousand dollars) to Tony Blair's Labour Party.

The Prime Minister denies telling lies and " a cover up" in a "cash for favours" scandal . When challenged in Parliament, Mr Blair angrily rejected the charges as "garbage".

Ambassador's missing diary

The Prime Minister's office claimed Mr Blair was helping a British company, but it turns out that LNM is registered in the Caribbean tax-haven of the Dutch Antilles, and only 100 of its 125,000 employees work in the United Kingdom. The Opposition Conservative Party and newspapers are protesting that it is in competition with the British steel industry.

They are demanding to know just what part Mr Ralph played in the deal. As well as drafting the letter for Mr Blair to sign, the Ambassador had at least half a dozen meetings with Mr Mittal, which are said to have helped the Indian businessman snatch the deal away from a rival French company called Usinor. Asked about these meetings, the British Embassy in Bucharest says that the Ambassador's diary for the relevant period, last June and July, has gone "missing".

The newspapers carry pictures of the signing ceremony for the deal, at which Mr Ralph was the only British person present. One headline asks: "Mr Ambassador, just why were you there?".

Foreign Secretary defends Richard Ralph

The Foreign Secretary, Jack Straw, has defended Mr Ralph, saying: "He was doing what we expect of all British Ambassadors: to pursue the interests of the UK and promote British business. I am wholly satisfied that our Ambassador knew nothing of any party political donations until this story surfaced this week".

Mr Ralph is also quoted as saying that when he asked Mr Blair to write the letter to the Romanian Prime Minister "no other consideration entered my mind" - including those of Labour donations. "The privatisatio