Prime Minister Paul Martin has spent almost $500,000 of taxpayers' money this year on air travel while campaigning for re-election, according to the Conservative party.

It has calculated that Martin has spent $474,000 on air travel since January, despite the fact that he has yet to call an election. The calculation was done on the basis that its costs $8,000 per hour to operate the prime minister's Challenger jet.

Adding Martin and his staff's accommodation and meal costs would bring the total to more than $1 million, say the Conservatives.

Paul Martin (CP photo)

"It's a huge amount of money that taxpayers are spending to help Paul Martin get re-elected. I think it's completely inappropriate," Monte Solberg, Conservative MP told the National Post.

The Liberal party rebutted the charges, saying all of Martin's trips had been part of official government business. The paper quoted a party spokesperson as saying that Martin's meetings with community groups to hear Canadians' opinions, were an example of his different style of governing.

The story, which is accompanied by a graphic of Canada crisscrossed by a dizzying number of lines representing the prime minister's trips, claims that many of the place Martin visited were in ridings where the Liberals stood to gain or appeared vulnerable.

Martin's listed itinerary of 36 flights since Jan. 6, 2004 includes destinations such as a flight to Lethbridge, Alta., to launch an aid package for cattle ranchers hit by the U.S. ban on Canadian beef over mad cow disease.

The Conservatives conceded that their leader Stephen Harper had also travelled extensively recently. However, they said he travelled on commercial flights, which cost considerably less than the prime minister's jet.

About half of Harper's trips would have been considered political events and thus would have paid for by the Conservative party, with the rest covered by the House of Commons budget which allows MPs a certain number of domestic flights, a spokesperson said.