BARCELONA, Spain (AP) — The director of a Spanish research center says an international consortium that planned to build a giant telescope on Hawaii's tallest peak has decided to seek a permit for an alternative site in the Canary Islands.

Canary Islands Astrophysics Institute Director Rafael Rebolo told The Associated Press on Monday that he received a letter from the head of the Thirty Meter Telescope project saying the board decided "to proceed with the request to seek a building permit" for the island of La Palma.

Rebolo insists the telescope's backers still want to put the telescope on the summit of Mauna Kea.

Native Hawaiian protesters are in their fourth week of blocking construction of the telescope on a mountain they consider sacred.