Money dispute halts Ground Zero talks

NEW YORK, March 15 (UPI) -- Talks between the New York Port Authority and a developer to rebuild Ground Zero have broken down acrimoniously over financing, reports said Wednesday.

In a late-night switch following marathon bargaining Tuesday to rebuild the terrorist-destroyed World Trade Center, developer Larry Silverstein proposed that the Port Authority fund building all five structures, including the 1,776-foot Freedom Tower.

"For two years, (Silverstein) says he has a plan to rebuild. Now he says he wants the Port Authority to bail him out because he doesn't have a plan," Port Authority Vice Chairman Charles Gargano told The New York Post.

"Greed was really his goal in what he wanted to get out of this," Gargano told The New York Daily News. "He knew what he wanted would be totally unacceptable -- it was completely opposite what we discussed earlier in the day."

A spokesman for Silverstein, who leased the Twin Towers six weeks before they were destroyed, termed the impasse a "temporary setback."

Without an agreement, construction cannot begin next month, as scheduled, on the Freedom Tower, officials said.