France boosts oil battle

About 1,000 people are involved in the clean-up

France is stepping up its fight against oil slicks from the sunken tanker, Prestige, a day after oysters were banned from the Arcachon basin, near Bordeaux.

The goal is to contain the oil before it hits land

Aquitaine regional government officer, Christian Fremont

An armada of vessels from various European countries is in the area to minimise damage to the 200km (125 miles) of tourist beaches that are already being polluted.

Environment Minister Roselyne Bachelot is due in Bordeaux on Monday to set up a branch of her ministry to oversee the operations.

Efforts are being focused initially on the Arcachon basin, a major shellfish producing area, which a 150-metre-long slick entered on Sunday.

Arcachon produces 12,000 tonnes of oysters per year

"There is one [slick] we have lost sight of, but the other has arrived and we're going to try to contain it," said Aquitaine regional government officer Christian Fremont.

"The goal is to contain the oil before it hits land."

Officials who halted the gathering of shellfish in the basin over the weekend said they wanted to be absolutely sure that no oyster with even the slightest oil contamination was sold.

The Liberian-registered Prestige broke in two and sank off north-west Spain in November, and the oil has been drifting across the Bay of Biscay ever since.

Fisheries and tourist areas in the north of Spain have already been devastated.

France fears that the oil, in hundreds of small slicks, will continue washing up on its coast for weeks if not months.

Troops

"This is a crisis that will be long-lasting, this is nothing like the Erika disaster," Ms Bachelot told LCI television, referring to a one-off oil spill from a tanker which sank off Brittany in 1999.

Contamination, usually in the form of thousands of small lumps of oil, has been found on beaches from the Spanish border in the south to La Rochelle in the north.

Among 1,000 people engaged in clean-up operations are 200 troops.

Local mayors are reported to have complained that they want something like 5,000 troops - 25 times as many - to be deployed.

The French Government has so far made available 50 million euros to fund the clean-up, and opened a criminal inquiry to establish who is responsible for the spill.

The south-western coast is renowned for its sandy beaches lined with pine forests, and is popular with tourists and surfers.