Airport handover 'seamless': Maldives government

MALE (AFP) - The Maldivian government on Saturday described as "seamless" the retaking of the country's international airport from an Indian developer following a bitter row that triggered a spat with its neighbour.

The government of President Mohamed Waheed last week decided to revoke a 25-year lease of the airport in the capital Male, asking infrastructure company GMR to quit by midnight Friday, two years after it took over.

"The handover process of the Ibrahim Nasir International Airport has gone seamlessly, as predicted," Mr Waheed's spokesman Masood Imad said.

"We now have the long and difficult task of weeding out corruption and inefficiency" in the airport's operations, he said.