Dubai developer Khoie Properties said on Monday that as a result of the financial crisis it was unable to meet a $15 million land payment to Ras al-Khaimah's investment arm for a $800 million project it had launched.

'Following last year's credit crunch and its impact on the UAE's real estate market, we were unable to meet our December 1, 2008 land payment of $15 million to Ras Al Khaimah Investment Authority (Rakia),' the chief executive Frank Khoie said in a statement on the firm's website.

'Rakia's officials have not been able to accept our deferred payment proposals and have taken legal action,' he said.

Khoie said the company is in discussions with Rakia for a possible handover of its La Hoya Bay project, a waterfront residential and leisure project on the man-made Al Marjan Island off the coast of the northern emirate.

But a senior Rakia official, who declined to be named, denied it was in talks with Khoie Properties to take over the project.

The official said that Khoie Properties had collected Dh280 million ($76.23 million) from investors for the project but had only spent Dh50 million on construction.

Frank Khoie was not immediately available for comment when contacted by Reuters.

Billions of dollars worth of projects in the United Arab Emirates have been delayed or cancelled, with Dubai particularly hard hit, as a result of the global financial crisis.-Reuters