Wine gift for Spanish clean-up teams

Some 2,000 bottles will go to those working over Christmas

The government of Spain's top wine-making region has donated more than 2,000 bottles of red wine to the people helping in the clean-up of the Prestige oil slick over Christmas.

Pedro Sanz Alonso, president of the northern Rioja region, said the Christmas gift sent last week was for "Spaniards and foreigners who, under direct orders from the Spanish Government, will remain on alert during the Christmas holidays," the Spanish news agency Efe reports.

The Prestige spilled a quarter of its oil onto Spain's beaches

The wine will go to some 800 people who include crew on civilian and military ships scooping up fuel oil from the tanker Prestige, as well as to the volunteers involved in the clean-up operation.

The stricken tanker broke in two and sank in the Atlantic last month off the coast of Spain's north-west Galicia region.

It then went on to spill about a quarter of its 77,000-ton cargo of fuel oil it was carrying, fouling hundreds of kilometres of coast.

Each recipient will get a case with three bottles, Mr Alonso's office said, so the people involved could "at least have a moment of joy and so that they could enjoy Christmas in better circumstances".

A second day of strong southerly winds provided more much-needed respite on Monday for Spain's ravaged north-western coastline, keeping a giant oil slick from the Prestige at bay.