An American lumber industry group is crying foul over Ottawa's plans to help struggling Canadian communities and unemployed workers in industries such as forestry, fishing and manufacturing.

The U.S. Coalition for Fair Lumber Imports is taking issue with the billion-dollar national community development trust fund, announced by Prime Minister Stephen Harper last week.

The government says the money would mostly be spent on job retraining and community infrastructure projects.

But the coalition, which represents American lumber producers, says it suspects money earmarked for workers will be used to reduce liabilities of Canadian lumber companies.

It says that would violate the 2006 Canada-U.S. Softwood Lumber Agreement.

In the group's statement, coalition chairman Steve Swanson said: "We strongly suspect money ostensibly earmarked for workers will be used to reduce liabilities of Canadian lumber companies, which would violate the Softwood Lumber Agreement."

Coalition executive director Zoltan van Heyningen told the Canadian Press in an interview from Washington that his group isn't ready to accuse the government of violating the lumber pact just yet.

But he said his group has very serious concerns and its lawyers are going over the announcement closely.