This included letters from two schools, Tang King Po College and St Francis' Canossian College, and other unspecified material that suggested the project would have a positive impact on traffic and the environment.

It all added up, Wu said, to a case of government/business collusion against him.

A spokesman for the Planning Department said Wu did not provide evidence to back up his claims.

Wu claimed that some large developers' applications for land-use conversions and lease modifications were approved even though they violated government rules and regulations.

``But other developers, including Hopewell's proposed projects, were rejected,'' Wu said.

The developer said he is prepared to file a complaint with the Office of the Ombudsman.

Earlier, Wu detailed in an interview with Ming Pao newspaper an instance he said backed up his claim that the government showed favoritism to some developers.

He said he was approached by a major local developer to sell the Mega Tower site since the project would never win approval.

``But the major developer, which I am not prepared to [identify], said it has sorted [things] out with someone else in the Planning Department.''

Wu has been trying for two decades to get a go-ahead for the HK$4 billion, twin-tower project. It has been submitted to the Town Planning Board for approval more than 10 times since Wu first unveiled his plan in the early 1980s. Land-purchase negotiations began in 1977.

Under current plans, the project will consist of two 60-story hotels adjacent to Hopewell's headquarters building, with a combined space of 172,740 square meters at a proposed plot ratio of 15 times.

The project's vast size ran into severe criticism last year at the Town Planning Board because it far exceeds the plot ratio of five on adjacent Kennedy Road. Wu returned this year with a revised plan featuring slightly lower density. He has warned that he might take action if the project is rejected yet again.

Over the year, plans for the site have included a 93-story tower that was later reduced to an 88-story hotel.

Hopewell's shares rose 0.51 percent Wednesday to end at HK$19.70 each. raymond.wang@globalchina.com