Planning permission for Frank Gehry's 290 million King Alfred development in Hove is expected to be finalised within days after winning the backing of the council leader.

Councillor Brian Oxley will ask members of Brighton and Hove City Council to sign off a raft of conditions known as the section 106 agreement. These need to be met before work can start.

Coun Oxley said he called a meeting of the planning applications sub-committee to "avoid further delay and speculation about the project".

The Frank Gehry-designed project is now likely to win its final formal approval by the end of next week. Conservative councillors unexpectedly announced a plan to take back control of conditions attached to the scheme from senior planning officers last week.

Developer Karis and financial backer ING responded by threatening to sue the council for up to 60 million if the project was delayed or disrupted.

Councillor Oxley said: "The redevelopment proposals have generated a huge amount of local feeling so I felt honour-bound to make sure councillors were given the opportunity to consider the detail of the Section 106 legal agreement, rather than leaving that responsibility to officers.

"We understand our contractual commitments to the developers and have no intention of trying to break the terms of the agreement.

"I believe the extra time we are taking to make sure this decision isn't rushed, and that councillors have the time they need to get the appropriate legal advice from officers, is a very sensible investment in the future of our city.

"With hindsight I believe more openness and transparency at the earlier stages of this scheme may have prevented such a high level of suspicion locally. The council has now established the major projects sub-committee to work on large-scale developments of this sort that have city-wide repercussions."

The planning applications sub-committee will meet at Hove Town Hall on Wednesday next week at 9.45am.

Gill Mitchell, leader of the Labour opposition, said: "I welcome Coun Oxley's decision to bring to an end this unnecessary delay and to hopefully now get this important development under way. I refute any suggestion that the process has not been an open one."

Karis Holdings said: "We understand the leader of the council is now satisfied everything is in order and we expect the section 106 to be signed off and planning permission to be issued by the end of next week."