THERE was more trouble for Mr Major last night when MPs were told that

he had given his approval to a foreign aid project later condemned by

public spending watchdog the National Audit Office.

Mr Major joined Foreign Secretary Douglas Hurd in giving the final

go-ahead to help fund a hydro-electric power plant in Malaysia --

despite opposition from a senior civil servant briefed to advise on the

project, the Commons Public Accounts Select Committee was told.

Overseas Development Administration permanent secretary Sir Timothy

Lankester, who had advised against the scheme, told the committee that

it had been approved initially in 1988 by then Prime Minister Margaret

Thatcher and had been given the final go-ahead in 1991 by Mr Hurd.

The committee is investigating the Government's handling of the aid

project which, according to an NAO report last year, cost the British

taxpayer #56m more than planned.

Opposition MPs claim the aid package was granted as part of a #1

billion arms deal negotiated by Lady Thatcher in 1988, while

environmentalists claim the 600-megawatt plant -- due to be commissioned

in 1996 -- is an ecological disaster.

Sir Timothy said the project had been subject to a two-day ''appraisal

mission'' carried out during a two-day visit to Malaysia by two ODA

officials in March 1989.

This astonished committee chairman, Labour MP Robert Sheldon, who said

the shortest previous record appraisal mission known to the committee --

for the De Lorean car project in Northern Ireland -- had lasted 10 days.

In response to later questioning, Sir Timothy said ''a lamentable

slip-up'' had been made. He added: ''There should have been a fuller

appraisal.''