Labour leader Joseph Muscat yesterday admitted that trade lobbyist Sandro Chetcuti, currently in court over the attempted murder of his colleague Vince Farrugia, helped organise a number of business dinners for the Labour party last year.

"The meals were conducted with prominent people in business to show them that in government Labour would not stifle business," he said, adding that he condemned the violence against Mr Farrugia.

Interviewed on Bondiplus, Dr Muscat defended the setting up of a Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgeneder section in his party to give these people an opportunity of "advocacy".

This had been done in a number of parties around the world and showed the LGBT community that the party did not just want to use them for elections.

"Our commitment is genuine," he said, just before adding that he was committed to civil partnerships but only if they did not allow adoptions.

He criticised Dr Gonzi for never actually doing anything on cohabitation in seven years.

He said that as Prime Minister he would seek a genuine bipartisan debate on divorce in the hope that, by giving a free vote in Parliament, divorce would be approved.

When asked why divorce would not be the party's official proposal he said that voters knew that, with Dr Gonzi, there was no chance of divorce being introduced.

Asked if as Prime Minister would nominate a President from the Nationalist Party to reciprocate Lawrence Gonzi's gesture of appointing George Abela, he said he did not long for a "tit for tat" situation.

He added that he did not think a President even needed to come from a political background and implied he would prefer nominating someone from the arts.

Regarding his proposal on the setting up of a second University, he said that Mcast could be turned into this new institution which would compete with the current one and provide more choice to students.