GOVERNMENT ministers should speed up the decision on transforming the New Forest into a national park, says a Hampshire MP.

Desmond Swayne said it was not good enough that a crucial report on the controversial proposals was still being studied by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA).

A public inquiry inspector's report on the proposed boundaries, which could enclose an area stretching from the Solent to Fordingbridge, is still on Alun Michael's desk.

In a Parliamentary written answer, the Rural Affairs Minister said: "I am currently considering the inspector's report.

"No announcement can be made until that consideration is complete."

Mr Swayne, Conservative MP for New Forest West, said it was time the government bit the bullet.

He said: "I've made no secret of the fact that I am against turning the New Forest into a national park but I think we should be informed of the outcome, whatever it is.

"It is really not good enough to make people wait so long."

At the Labour Party conference in 1999, Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott pledged to grant national park status to the New Forest as "a millennium gift to the people".

However, opponents claim it would attract tens of thousands more tourists - raising concerns that the New Forest's "already overcrowded" roads and towns could not cope.

Mr Swayne is also concerned that New Forest council could be stripped of powers over planning, minerals and waste on land included in the scheme.

Earlier this year, Mr Swayne claimed the government had already decided to re-classify the New Forest - despite massive opposition.

The Office of the Deputy Prime Minister approved plans to transfer 46,000 hectares of green belt land to the proposed national park.

However, an ODPM spokesman said the final decision rested with DEFRA.

The re-designation of green belt land would happen only if the national park got the go-ahead, he added.