An American missile contractor has been secretly scouting locations for a radar installation in Labrador, despite Prime Minister Paul Martin's decision to keep Canada out of the U.S. missile defence shield program.

In late February, Martin made it clear that Canada won't be part of Washington's controversial program to shoot down incoming missiles aimed at North America.

"We took the decision on ballistic missile defence in terms of where Canada's interests lay," he said.

A little more than a month later, CBC News has learned, senior officials from the Raytheon Company travelled to Happy Valley-Goose Bay, Labrador, on a scouting trip.

The Massachusetts-based corporation builds missiles for the American military and is a major player in the design of the North American ballistic missile defence shield.

One visitor was the principal mechanical engineer of national missile defence with Raytheon. The other was the manager of X-band sensor systems, a finely tuned type of imaging radar used in early-warning systems.

One of the Raytheon officials reached by CBC wouldn't do an interview or talk about any details of his visit to Happy Valley-Goose Bay.

Saying he travels extensively on Raytheon business, he said he could not recall whether he'd been in Happy Valley-Goose Bay any time after Martin's announcement.

However, Newfoundland and Labrador Hydro confirms its officials met with Raytheon executives to discuss power supply in the area.

A short statement from Raytheon issued to CBC says the company routinely "looks at areas around the world where its products could provide value."

A committee of politicians and businesses continue to push Happy Valley-Goose Bay as a location for missile defence, but they want to keep Raytheon's involvement off the public radar.

No one from the committee returned calls to CBC.

In early March, Liberal Senator Bill Rompkey said he would keep pushing for the Americans to build a missile defence radar system in Labrador, even though Canada's government had rejected participation in the U.S. defence initiative.

He said the system could track incoming missiles and pass that information on to the U.S. through Norad, the North American Aerospace Defence Command.

Rompkey said 100 permanent jobs could be created at the Happy Valley-Goose Bay air base if an American installation were built there.