The coordinator of a mega development project that will extend from southern Mexico to Panama responded Tuesday to its critics, saying the plan is not one of "savage capitalism" and will not destroy the environment or erode Indian rights.

Florencio Salazar, who oversees the so-called Puebla-Panama Plan (PPP), made the comments two days before a Mexico-Central America summit meeting that will study the project's progress.

Non-governmental organizations oppose the project because they believe it aims to serve the interests of multinational corporations eager to obtain huge tracts of land rich in natural resources.

The PPP would not consider implementing any project without the endorsement of indigenous and peasant communities, said Salazar, who dismissed as "lies" reports that indigenous groups opposed the project, though he acknowledged some resistance.

Salazar said work was already underway on improving area highways and linking the electricity grids, "because it's a region that is extremely underdeveloped and requires this type of approach, along with a vision to seek more balanced development for Mexico."

By that, Salazar meant a projection southward, to balance the northward focus spurred by Mexico's partnership in NAFTA with the United States and Canada.

"One of the region's main problems is precisely the fact that it does not attract private investment," he said. "And it's not attractive because the infrastructure doesn't exist; and the infrastructure is lacking because there is no economic growth, which, in turn, means no steady jobs or incomes."

Resistance to the plan is coming from poorly informed parties "or people who are well-informed but hold an ideological bent opposed to the project," said Gustaco Iruegas, the Mexican Foreign Relations Secretariat's deputy secretary for Latin America.

A survey in April and May among inhabitants of Mexico's southern states highlighted differences between the views of the general populace and "the positions of several indigenous groups whose stance is more ideological and political," Salazar said.

As an example, Salazar cited the case of the Zapatista National Liberation Army, the group most staunchly opposed to the PPP.

The PPP is a plan created by Mexican President Vicente Fox to spur development in Central American and Mexico's south, the country's most impoverished region. The project aims to enhance road and electricity infrastructure as well as create a thriving tourist industry and bring about rural development.

However, groups opposed to the plan argue business saavy Fox is looking to open the region up to exploitation by U.S. and European capitalists at the expense of the environment and the indigenous.