The World Bank brought its international roadshow on a controversial hydroelectric dam project in Laos to Paris Tuesday, but the bid for transparency left some critics crying for more facts.

The Paris stop was the third of four workshops planned in the run-up to the bank's May 2005 deadline for its crucial decision on whether to guarantee financing for the 1.3 billion dollar Nam Theun 2 dam project in the Mekong delta.

The roadshow is aimed at gathering feedback from so-called "international stakeholders" -- government representatives, non-governmental organizations (NGOs), civil society and the media -- on the feasibility of the project.The first stop, on August 31, was in Bangkok. Thailand is key to the project: it has signed a five-billion-dollar, 25-year contract to buy most of the electricity generated.Tokyo was next on September 3 and the bank will wind up the tour in Washington on Friday. The Lao government will sponsor a final consultation on September 24.

The cash-strapped communist government has based its national development strategy on the dam, which it says will reduce poverty. But critics argue the grand scheme will displace about 6,000 people and lay waste to the environment of the poorest country in east Asia, where more than three-quarters of the population of 5.7 million live on less than two dollars a day.

Corinne Lepage, the workshop's independent moderator and a former French environment minister, hailed the "courteous" exchange of ideas in the consultation process. "One of the keys of democracy is the transparency of the utilization of public funds," she said after the day-long workshop.

Lepage noted the "enormous" amount of studies done on the social and environmental aspects of the project. "But there was far less information on the economic-financial aspects," she said after the workshop ended. "I feel there is still a lot of negotiations to have with Laos on the question of revenue management, notably that they don't get lost along the way and that the money goes where it's supposed to, notably for the eradication of poverty," she added.

A number of participants also complained about the lack of documentation provided on key issues such as economic impact, project costs and revenues.

"A lot of questions remained unanswered, especially numbers," said Vanida Thephsouvanh, of the Lao Movement for Human Rights. "Two years ago, they were talking about 250 million dollars (revenues) a year for 25 years, and now it's 80 million," she told AFP.

Christian Delvoie, infrastructure director at the World Bank, said that net revenues would be about 25 million (dollars) a year, or about five percent of the government's revenues. "This dam isn't the goose that laid the golden egg, it isn't a miracle cure," he added.

Project developer is the Nam Theun 2 Power Company Ltd. (NTPC) is an international consortium headed by the international arm of the French state's electricity monopoly, Electricite de France (EDF). EDF International has a 35 percent stake, Laos Electricity has 25 percent, the listed Thai firm Electricity Generating Authority of Thailand has 25 percent, and Italian-Thai Development Public Co. Ltd. has 15 percent.

The project on Nam Theun, a tributary of the massive Mekong river which snakes across Indochina, has been in the works for 30 years, but it was not until the past decade that it took shape, despite a setback from the 1997-1998 Asian financial crisis. The dam is to be built about 250 kilometers (160 miles) south of Vientiane on the Nam Theun and is expected to feed electricity to 17 provinces in neighboring Thailand after coming on line in 2009.

The government says it will be a major economic driver for the landlocked, mountainous and agrarian country.

The World Bank says the project could pave the way for more foreign investments in Laos.