High on the list of residents' concerns is the belief that the pig farm, built by Denmark's Saerimner, will pollute the environment. And stink.

The bakery owners are particularly worried about the future farm's sanitary zone -- the distance pig rearers have to maintain between their farm and local residences and businesses -- which is just 500 metres (yards) from a bakery in Pakruojis.

"It is a scandalous story," said the head of the ombudsman's office in the region, Romas Valentukevicious.

"There was a small farm there during Soviet times, where a few hundred pigs were kept. Now they plan to rear thousands of pigs there," Valentukevicius said.

Press reports have said the farm will be home to 150,000 pigs when it is completed, while Saerimner has insisted there will be no more than 12,000 pigs at the farm.

Saerimner general manager Claus Baltersen insisted that the Danish company is in full compliance with EU and Lithuanian laws, and there was no need to be concerned about negative effects on the environment or nasty smells disturbing the locals.

"We are doing everything according to Lithuanian laws and EU standards and I do not understand why we are being attacked," Baltersen told AFP.

"Lithuanian laws provide for a sanitary zone of 500 metres if no more than 12,000 pigs are bred. There will be no more than that number of pigs at this farm. Why should other rules be applied to us as Danes if they are fit for Lithuanians?" Baltersen said.

Lithuanian environmentalists are also unhappy about the pig farm project, claiming that the Danish developers have struck an agreement with local farmers, under which waste from the pig farm would be discharged into fields, from which it would pollute groundwater and streams.

Baltersen said: "We have a five-year contract with local farmers producing grain. They use (the waste) as a natural fertilizer, and in so doing, they save money."

He questioned whether environmental concerns were really behind the discontent over the farm.

"It is not a question of the environment. Somebody just does not want us to rear pigs in Lithuania," Baltersen said.

But one group is happy with the pig farm project -- the local authorities in Pakruojis district.

They say the project represents an investment of 37 million litasmillion euros) in their region, and stress that Saerimner has pledged to protect the environment by building a modern pig breeding complex, which would fully meet local and European Union environmental standards, and create hundreds of much-needed jobs in the region.

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