~~Adz:Right~~BASSETERRE, St. Kitts  Crews have started work on a US$360 million (euro281 million) luxury resort in St. Kitts, a Caribbean nation hoping tourism will give the economy a boost after last year's closure of the island's 300-year-old sugar industry.

The Kittitian Heights Resort Spa and Golf Course will cover 390 acres (158 hectares) in the island's northwest, about 15 miles (24 kilometers) from Basseterre, the capital of this former British Caribbean territory.

"The infrastructure has started _ clearing roads, surveys. We are looking to start building early next year," said Sanjhevi Kempadoo, project administrator for the St. Kitts-based developer, Belmont Resorts Limited.

Prime Minister Denzil Douglas has praised the development, saying it was one of several resort projects that could create jobs for hundreds of former sugar workers in the two-island nation.

Belmont Resorts said 300 construction workers will complete the resort's 160-room hotel, 100 luxury villas, 440 condos and a golf course. Once finished, the resort is expected to employ about 700 people.

It could take two to three years to complete, Kempadoo said.

~~Adz:Left~~St. Kitts shut down its sugar industry after the European Union announced it would slash its subsidies for the product coming from Africa, the Caribbean and the Pacific, at the beginning of 2006. The World Trade Organization had said the subsidies were unfair.

Like many of its Caribbean neighbors, St. Kitts has focused its revenue-generating efforts on tourism.