Dueling experts yesterday debated whether accused spy Noshir Gowadia is mentally fit to stand trial on federal espionage charges.

Bureau of Prisons forensic psychologist Lisa Hope and defense expert Richard Rogers agreed that Gowadia suffers from "narcissistic personality disorder" but disagreed on the severity of the affliction.

Hope said in her opinion Gowadia is not delusional and is competent to stand trial and assist in his own defense.

Gowadia's disorder gives him "a grandiose sense of self and entitlement" but he is a "high-functioning individual" who is mentally fit for trial, Hope said.

Gowadia, an aerospace engineer who helped design the B-2 stealth bomber, was arrested by FBI agents at his million-dollar Maui home in October 2005. He was charged with 21 criminal offenses, including selling "stealth cruise missile" technology to the People's Republic of China.

Defense forensic psychologist Rogers said he believes Gowadia's mental problems have caused "significant impairment in his ability to reason and to communicate with counsel."

In addition to narcissistic personality disorder, Rogers also diagnosed Gowadia as suffering from "obsessive-compulsive personality disorder."

Gowadia complained that he could communicate more easily with a mentally retarded person than with one of his defense lawyers, David Klein, according to Hope and Rogers.

And Gowadia sees his other lawyer, Birney Bervar, "as a complete impediment to his victory" in court, Rogers testified.

Among the beliefs or "exaggerations" that Gowadia reported is that he has an IQ of "over 210," Hope testified.

"That is a nonexistent IQ," she said. Gowadia's IQ was measured at 123, which "is very superior but not genius" level, she said.

Gowadia also told the doctors that when he was working as a government design engineer, the Soviet Union had placed a "multi-million-dollar hit on my head to either kidnap me or kill me."

That earned him "round-the-clock protection for many years" by the U.S. government, he told the psychlogists.

Asked by Bervar if such statements weren't delusional, Hope said, "Not in the case of Mr. Gowadia."

Gowadia also claimed to have designed a missile system that "could have saved all the lives in Iraq," the experts testified.

In a series of voluntary interviews he gave to federal agents before he was indicted, Gowadia freely confessed to many of the crimes he is now charged with committing.

In one written statement to authorities, Gowadia said, "What I did was espionage and treason because I shared military secrets and shared my technical knowledge" with the People's Republic of China.

Now Gowadia wants to take the witness stand in his own defense and "sweep away the entire prosecution's case by testifying," said Rogers.

"Mr. Gowadia is probably quite a difficult client," Hope told defense lawyer Bervar.