The panel met for the first time yesterday. It was set up by Governor Apirak Kosayodhin early this year in response to criticism that the Austrian manufacturer, Steyr Daimler Puch, had overcharged the BMA.

The controversy included charges the trucks were manufactured without using available Thai parts as required by a Cabinet resolution.

The panel deliberated over whether the BMA should formally take delivery of the 176 vehicles.

The vehicles have already arrived in Thailand and are awaiting the BMA's official approval.

Panel chairman Wallop Suwandee, a deputy Bangkok governor, said a meeting would be held next week and the review wrapped up by the end of the month.

The entire Thai-Austrian deal is worth Bt6.8 billion.

It includes another 139 fire trucks as well as 30 fireboats.

The vehicles were priced at Bt6.8 million, but the 176 impounded vehicles were found to have been built on a Mitsubishi truck chassis, each of which should have cost only Bt740,000.

Apirak earlier submitted the offi-cial result of an investigation to the Interior Ministry, Anti Money-Laundering Office and National Counter Corruption Commission.

The report concluded that the trucks were overpriced.

Apirak requested an appointment with caretaker Interior Minister Kongsak Vantana to discuss the matter today but Kongsak told him he would be available on a date not yet specified.

Steyr's representative, Wolfegang Kaufman, told the panel that the take-over of the company had not invalidated the fire-truck contract and urged the BMA to honour it.