Broadway Underwater Institute following assurances the $10 million project will adopt an internationally accepted collections policy.

And the National Liberal Party also threw its support behind the institute, but opposed the use of the land adjoining East Broadway.

Museum chairman Mr. Paul Leseur said yesterday the museum's trustees told backers Mr. David Lines and Finance Minister the Hon. David Saul it would not object following a meeting last week.

"On behalf of the Institute, Mr. David Lines and Dr. David Saul gave a commitment that they would be following the collection standards set by the International Conference of Maritime Museums and the American Association of Maritime Museums and that resolved the issue as far as the museum was concerned,'' he said.

"Therefore, the museum has no objection to the institute on that basis.'' The museum had previously raised concerns about the institute, saying in the absence of a collection policy, it could be used to house artifacts which had not been excavated properly.

"What we will do is encourage the trustees of the institute to adopt that policy and we hope it will be similar to that of the Maritime Museum and the National Trust,'' Mr. Leseur said.

"Once they do that, we could collaborate with it to the mutual advantage of both organisations.'' He said the Maritime Museum's policy is it will only accept artifacts unearthed since 1980 which have been excavated according to archaeological principles.

And if people offer artifacts unearthed before 1980, they must produce proof of the wreck the goods came from and the date they were found.

Mr. Leseur said it was too early to say how the two bodies would cooperate.

But he said it was possible the Maritime Museum would lend artifacts to the institute for exhibitions and a joint ticket may be discussed. "We will have to address loans down the road,'' he said.

Asked if the museum viewed the institute as competition, he said: "Everything depends on how much the visitor has to spend on this kind of thing, but we will talk with them on how we can collaborate and one way would be to have a common ticket or something like that.

"But we did not get that far in our discussions last week.'' NLP chairman Mr. Graeme Outerbridge said the party backed the idea of the institute but said the land at East Broadway should be bought by Government and turned into a park.

"The NLP finds it regrettable that the Finance Minister has been caught straddling two masters -- the Bermuda Government and the president of Fidelity International,'' he said.

"Even if there has been no wrongdoing, the appearances are dreadful....''