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Mauritius' newly elected Prime Minister Navin Ramgoolam said he has asked the United Kingdom (UK) to give an independent review on a deal over the future of the Chagos Islands.

Under the agreement, the UK would relinquish sovereignty over the archipelago. However, the county will maintain a 99-year lease over Diego Garcia -  largest island of the Chagos Archipelago. The place is home to a major military airbase of the US and the UK.

A spokesperson for UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer told BBC that the Mauritian PM "indicated he was open" to the historic deal.

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Ramgoolam was elected as the prime minister two weeks ago.

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At the time when the deal was signed, Pravind Jugnauth was the PM of Mauritius. He, along with Starmer, had said at that time that it was a "seminal moment in our relationship and a demonstration of our enduring commitment to the peaceful resolution of disputes and the rule of law".

But during his election campaign, Ramgoolam called the agreement a "sell-out" which was motivated by desperation ahead of the election.

Arvin Boolell, the newly appointed minister of agro-industry and fisheries, slammed the previous government for granting such a long lease to the UK over Diego Garcia.

He claimed that the duration of the lease was 200 years, but the publicised timeframe said it was 99 years for the initial period.

It is not the newly elected government of Mauritius that has objections to the deal. US President-elect Donald Trump' 's pick for secretary of state, Marco Rubio, had said in October that the deal posed a "serious threat" to US national security by giving the islands to a country allied with China.

But the British PM and his Foreign Secretary, David Lammy, have called the agreement 'a good deal'.

"I'm very, very confident that this is a deal that the Mauritians will see, in a cross-party sense, as a good deal for them," Lammy said on November 28.

The deal is still subject to the finalisation of a treaty.

(With inputs from agencies)