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OTTAWA - Health Canada is holding onto a damning report on asbestos on the eve of an international conference at which Canada plans to defend its export of the known carcinogen, critics say.

The report was intended to support the Conservative government's long-standing fight to keep chrysotile asbestos off a UN watch list, a position federal officials plan to argue at a convention in Rome this October.

But members of an expert panel that produced the $100,000 report say the findings justify a ban on production and use in Canada.

Health Minister Tony Clement commissioned the report last year to determine the relative carcinogenic potency of chrysotile asbestos, linked to various forms of lung cancer.

The panel's findings were made final in March but have yet to be released.

A Health Canada spokesman said in an e-mail the department is reviewing the report to "help further its knowledge of chrysotile asbestos fibres in relation to human health ... (and the report) will be made available to the public after the department has reviewed the findings."

Leslie Staynar, a member of the expert panel, told an American media outlet last month "we were assured that the report would released to the public in two weeks."

And in a recently published letter to Health Minister Tony Clement, Staynar indicated the report's findings support a ban.

"I encourage you and your ministry to lend your support to the proposal for a ban on the use and production of asbestos in Canada," said the letter.

The panel was originally criticized by opposition parties because it was believed some of its members were so-called asbestos supporters.

The findings, however, appear to support a view already held by most of the industrialized world.

"And that's not the answer the Canadian government wanted," said New Democrat MP Pat Martin, a supporter of a Canadian ban on asbestos.

"They want the world to believe that Quebec asbestos is somehow magically benign. ... It's cowardly and it's the very antithesis of transparency and accountability."

At a UN convention in 2006, the Harper government successfully blocked a decision by more than 100 governments that would have required all exporters to label the product as hazardous.

The only mine still producing chrysotile asbestos in Canada, located in Quebec, reported production at 13,000 tonnes in July, a four-year high.

Global consumption has increased almost 25 per cent in the last five years and Canada is scrambling to keep up with demand, mainly in India.

Green party Leader Elizabeth May said delaying this report is a clear sign Canada will continue its "dismal" position on chrysotile asbestos.

"If they were going to change their position, you release the report, you draw attention to the fact this is going on and you say 'we've had to make a significant change in our position'."