ACT Chief Minister Jon Stanhope confirmed yesterday Technical Real Estate wrote to the Government this week asking it to explore alternative sites for the controversial $1 billion data centre, despite an environmental impact study finding no reason for it not to proceed at the proposed location.

In response, Chief Minister's Department chief executive Andrew Cappie-Wood is convening a taskforce to find a new site for the project and identify any legal issues.

Mr Stanhope said the Government did not want TRE to abandon the site, but the Greens and the Liberals had teamed up to defeat it ''by hook or by crook''. The threat of the parties passing retrospective legislation in the Legislative Assembly forced TRE's hand.

''We don't have the numbers, we don't have control of this issue, that's what minority government delivers,'' he said.

''The Liberals and the Greens have indicated that they intend to work together on this particular issue to ensure that the data centre does not proceed on its current site.''

He said the Greens and Liberals would be embarrassed by the results of the environmental impact study, which found there were no environmental or health concerns with the site. The report will be made public on Monday.

''Residents of Macarthur will not see the data centre, they will not smell the data centre, they will not hear the data centre and their health will not be affected by it.''