WASHINGTON (AP) – One of Americans’ favourite beach destinations, The Bahamas, is getting a new US arrival – sophisticated equipment to detect radioactive materials in shipping cargo.

But US Customs agents won’t be on site to supervise the machine’s use as a nuclear safeguard for the American shoreline that is just 65 miles (105 kilometres) away from Freeport. Under an unusual arrangement, a Hong Kong company will help operate the detector.

The Bush administration says it is finalising a no-bid contract with Hutchison Whampoa Ltd. It acknowledged the deal is the first time a foreign company will be involved in running a radiation detector at an overseas port without American customs agents present.

The administration is negotiating a second no-bid contract for a Philippine company to install radiation detectors in its home country, according to documents obtained by The Associated Press. At dozens of other overseas ports, foreign governments are primarily responsible for scanning cargo.

While President George W Bush recently reassured Congress that foreigners would not manage security at US ports, the Hutchison deal in The Bahamas illustrates how the administration is relying on foreign companies at overseas ports to safeguard cargo headed to the United States.

Hutchison Whampoa is the world’s largest ports operator and among the industry’s most-respected companies. It was an early adopter of US anti-terror measures. But its billionaire chairman, Li Ka-Shing, also has substantial business ties to China’s government that have raised US concerns over the years.

“Li Ka-Shing is pretty close to a lot of senior leaders of the Chinese government and the Chinese Communist Party,” said Larry M Wortzel, head of a US government commission that studies China security and economic issues. But Wortzel said Hutchison operates independently from Beijing, and he described Li as “a very legitimate international businessman”.

“One can conceive legitimate security concerns and would hope either the Homeland Security Department or the intelligence services of the United States work very hard to satisfy those concerns,” Wortzel said.

Three years ago, the Bush administration effectively blocked a Hutchison subsidiary from buying part of a bankrupt US telecommunications company, Global Crossing Ltd, on national security grounds.

And a US military intelligence report, once marked “secret”, cited Hutchison in 1999 as a potential risk for smuggling arms and other prohibited materials into the United States from The Bahamas.

Hutchison’s port operations in The Bahamas and Panama “could provide a conduit for illegal shipments of technology or prohibited items from the West to the PRC (People’s Republic of China), or facilitate the movement of arms and other prohibited items into the Americas,” the now-declassified assessment said.

The CIA currently has no security concerns about Hutchison’s port operations, and the Bush administration believes the pending deal with the foreign company would be safe, officials said.

Supervised by Bahamian customs officials, Hutchison employees will drive the towering, truck-like radiation scanner that moves slowly over large cargo containers and scans them for radiation that might be emitted by plutonium or a radiological weapon.

Any positive reading would set off alarms monitored simultaneously by Bahamian customs inspectors at Freeport and by US Customs and Border Protection officials working at an anti-terrorism centre 800 miles (1,288 kilometres) away in northern Virginia. Any alarm would prompt a closer inspection of the cargo, and there are multiple layers of security to prevent tampering, officials said.

“The equipment operates itself,” said Bryan Wilkes, a spokesman for the US National Nuclear Security Administration, the agency negotiating the contract. “It’s not going to be someone standing at the controls pressing buttons and flipping switches.”

Hutchison’s ports subsidiary said in a statement Friday from its headquarters in Hong Kong it was confident that Bahamian customs inspectors would notify US authorities whenever it is appropriate.

The administration is finalising the contract amid a national debate over maritime security sparked by the furore over now-abandoned plans by Dubai-owned DP World to take over significant operations at major US ports.

Representative Bennie Thompson, the senior Democrat on the House Homeland Security Committee, said Bush “needs to explain what safeguards are in place at foreign ports to assure that operators are not jeopardising our security”.

“If a port operator has been identified as posing a potential threat to national security, it is only common sense that Americans should be working on site to assure US security is taken seriously,” Thompson said. “If the president needs more US Customs inspectors to get the job done, I’d be happy to lead the charge to get however many is needed to keep America safe.”

Some security experts questioned whether the US should pay a foreign company with ties to China to keep radioactive material out of the United States.

“Giving a no-bid contract to a foreign company to carry out the most sensitive security screening for radioactive materials at ports abroad raises many questions,” said Senator Charles Schumer.

A low-paid employee with access to the screening equipment could frustrate international security by studying how the equipment works and which materials set off its alarms, warned a retired US Customs investigator who specialised in smuggling cases.

“Money buys a lot of things,” Robert Sheridan said. “The fact that foreign workers would have access to how the United States screens various containers for nuclear material and how this technology scrutinises the containers – all those things allow someone with a nefarious intention to thwart the screening.”

The Hutchison deal in The Bahamas was flagged in a report in October by ATS Worldwide Services, a Florida firm that identifies potential risks for private-sector and government clients. Company officials said they shared the report with some officials in Congress, the military and law enforcement.

Other experts discounted concerns. They cited Hutchison’s reputation as a leading ports company and said the United States inevitably must rely for some security on large commercial operators in the global maritime industry.

“We must not allow an unwarranted fear of foreign ownership or involvement in offshore operations to impair our ability to protect against nuclear weapons being smuggled into this country,” said Senator Norm Coleman, a member of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee. “We must work with these foreign companies.”

A former Coast Guard commander, Stephen Flynn, said foreign companies sometimes prove more trustworthy – and susceptible to US influence – than governments.

“It’s a very fragile system,” Flynn said. Foreign companies “recognise the US has the capacity and willingness to exercise a kill switch if something goes wrong.”

There are no US customs agents checking any cargo containers at the Hutchison port in Freeport. Under the contract, no US officials would be stationed permanently in The Bahamas with the radiation scanner.

Hutchison operates the sprawling Freeport Container Port on Grand Bahama Island. Its subsidiary, Hutchison Port Holdings, has operations in more than 20 countries but none in the United States.

Contract documents obtained by AP indicate Hutchison will be paid roughly US$6 million (euro5 million). The contract is for one year with options for three years.

The National Nuclear Security Administration, which is an Energy Department agency tasked with strengthening nuclear security worldwide, is negotiating The Bahamas contract under a US$121 million (euro102 million) programme it calls the “second line of defence”. Wilkes, the NNSA spokesman, said the Bahamian government dictated that the US give the contract to Hutchison.

“It’s their country, their port. The driver of the mobile carrier is the contractor selected by their government. We had no say or no choice,” he said. “We are fortunate to have allies who are signing these agreements with us.”

Some security experts said that is a weak explanation in The Bahamas, with its close reliance on the United States. The administration could insist that The Bahamas permit US Customs agents to operate at the port, said Albert Santoli, an expert on national security issues in Asia and the Pacific.

“Why would they not accept that?” said Santoli, a former national security aide to Representative Dana Rohrabacher, “There is an interest in The Bahamas and every other country in the region to make sure the US stays safe and strong. That’s how this should be negotiated.”