The Great Lakes chemical plant finally closed in January

An environmental campaign group has criticised plans by an American company to invest �800m in a massive gas project linking Anglesey to north west England.

Texas-based Canatxx Energy Ventures revealed on Monday that it had bought the former Great Lakes chemical site at Amlwch.

Liquid gas will be brought in by tankers to Amlwch, where it will be converted back into gas and sent via an under-sea pipeline to Fleetwood in Lancashire.

There it would be stored or sent directly into the gas network.

However, the company's plans to store the gas near Fleetwood have aroused local opposition, and no decision has been taken on its planning application.

Friends of the Earth Cymru said the power station should be turned down on grounds of low energy efficiency, because it claims liquid natural gas imported from the Middle East would be used

The campaign group said that there were more efficient methods of burning gas for power which would reduce emissions of greenhouse gases and could create more jobs.

Neil Crumpton, FoE Cymru's energy campaigner, said that using the imported LNG was "little better than the emissions from coal burnt in new coal power station technology".

He added: "At a time when we need to be reducing our dependence on fossil fuels from the Middle East it is a pity that old fashioned, inefficient technology such as this should be proposed for north Wales.

There were also environmental objections to two liquified natural gas terminals in Pembrokeshire, which were recently given the go ahead.

It is believed that the final decision will be made by the Department of Trade and Industry.

Canatxx chief executive Dennis Volter said the company was also in negotiations to buy the old Shell site at Rhosgoch near Amlwch to build a 1200 megawatt power plant.

Councillor Gareth Winston Roberts said it would mean quality jobs

But the company said the gasification project at Amlwch did not depend on the power plant going ahead.

About 60 permanent jobs would be created, Mr Volter said, with many more temporary positions during the construction period.

The project is expected to be completed by 2010.

It was revealed in January that Canatxx had put in a bid for the Great Lakes plant which closed the same month with the loss of more than 100 jobs.

The factory has extracted chemicals like bromine - used in the production of petrol - from the Irish Sea for almost 50 years but had closed in the face of cheaper competition from overseas.

At the time Canatxx said if the bid was accepted by Great Lakes, it could lead to a multi-million-pound development creating between 100 - 150 jobs.

The Rhosgoch site, a former Shell oil depot, is owned by Anglesey Council.

Anglesey deputy council leader Gareth Winston Roberts said: "This is good news in one way - 60 jobs of high quality which are much needed in Anglesey but it's going to take two to three years to develop."

"At the end of the day the government needs to pass this to make sure the development goes through as there is a crisis in this county of supplying gas."