By Tim Cocks

KAMPALA, May 22 (Reuters) - Uganda's cabinet has suspended a proposal to give away part of a rainforest to a sugarcane grower, the environment minister said on Tuesday, weeks after three people were killed in a protest against the plan.

President Yoweri Museveni has faced vocal opposition over the plan to raze 7,100 hectares (17,540 acres) of Mabira Forest, a nature reserve since 1932, and give the land to the privately-owned Mehta Group's sugar estate.

Environment minister Maria Mutagamba told Reuters the government had shelved it, pending a cabinet committee study.

"There is a suspension until the committee reports back," Mutagamba said. "It is an extensive process -- it is not going to be finished in a week or a month."

A protest to save Mabira last month turned violent, leaving three dead, including an Indian man stoned to death by rioters.

Mehta is owned by an ethnic Indian family.

Mutagamba said the lands ministry would draw up a map of land available to investors in Uganda for sectors such as coffee, sugar, manufacturing or tourism, to see if there was alternative land for Mehta's sugar.

Critics say razing part of Mabira would destroy a fragile environment -- drying up rainfall, threatening a watershed for streams that feed Lake Victoria and removing a buffer against pollution of it from Uganda's two biggest industrial towns.

It also threatened species like rare monkeys and the prized Tit Hylia bird -- found only in Mabira and surrounding forests.

AlertNet news is provided by