Organisers said 50,000 people turned out to protest the EU-approved decision allowing local authorities to construct an industrial port on the coast at Granadilla on the southeastern side of the island.

Police put the number of protesters at 10,000 as local people and green activist movements gathered for the fourth time in the past two years to register their disapproval and charge that "the (regional) government is living off cement."

Proponents of the 240 million-euro (310 million dollars) scheme say the port will lead to the creation ultimately of some 5,000 jobs, but demonstraters insisted the environmental price was too high.

The protest came as Spain is dealing with growing levels of urban corruption, most notably in the Costa Del Sol jet-set resort of Marbella, where investigations into a multi-billion euro scandal has engulfed local authorities accused of taking kickbacks in return for building permits.

The scandal prompted the Spanish government to take the unprecedented step of dissolving Marbella's municipal government and appointing a caretaker council under the authority of regional authorities.

Since the Marbella scandal broke a plethora of other similar scandals have emerged across Spain, primarily related to property crime amid the rampant re-zoning of land on which corrupt officials have allowed construction, especially on an increasingly concrete-dominated coastline.

In the case of the Granadilla port, first mooted in the early 1970s, the regional and central governments have defended a scheme they say will underpin Tenerife's economic future.

Ecologists from organisations such as Greenpeace and Ecologists in Action and residents see the matter differently and insist the construction will impact negatively on the area's natural resources.

Last week, Brussels approved the port construction, judging it to be in the public interest and on the grounds that the current main port at Santa Cruz can no longer cope with the volume of container ships berthing at the island.

EU Environment Commissioner Stavros Dimas, in finding in favour of the project 10 days ago, noted the issue had caused local controversy and Canary Islands media quoted him as saying following the ruling that "the environmental considerations must be completely integrated into the planning from the outset."

Brussels nonetheless attached some conditions designed to ensure the protection of flora and fauna in the area and said the port would have to be smaller than originally planned, with some areas enjoying protected status and off-limits to protect species including tortuga boba turtles.

The port will comprise a 2.5 kilometre-long (1.8 miles) long breakwater which will be 55 metres (150 feet) deep.

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