BBC Correspondent Jon Devitt: UK response to crisis "unimaginative, grudging and tardy"

An inquest verdict says the authorities on the UK territory should have offered nine farmers new homes away from the volcano.

Those who died were among a number who stayed around it, fearing they would have nowhere else to go.

Chief Minister David Brandt: A message for UK minister George Foulkes

But a Foreign Office spokesman in London said there had been no available land and the victims had known the dangers of an "exclusion zone" placed around the peak.

The verdict comes after a a two-month inquiry into the deaths of 19 people, which heard from 52 witnesses.

The main town of Plymouth covered in ash after the eruption

It concluded that all the deaths were caused by the volcanic eruption, but said in nine cases the failure of both the local and UK authorities to find alternative land for displaced farmers contributed.

In a report endorsed by the inquest jury, the island's coroner Rhys Burriss called the UK's response to the crisis "unimaginative, grudging and tardy".

Warning that his conclusions "do not make comfortable reading for the British Government," Mr Buriss said land should have been bought on a safe section of the island to house farmers in the volcano area.

But a joint statement from the UK's Department for International Development (DFID) and the Foreign Office said this was not possible.

Montserrat Coroner Rhys Burriss: What the inquest jury decided

It said the farmers were told to leave the exclusion area a month before the eruption, and that government-owned land in the north of the island had been unsuitable for farming while private owners had been unwilling to lease land.

The statement said that those killed had long been living in the exclusion zone despite knowing it was unsafe. It added: "On May 23, the farmers were told to stop farming in the area nearest the volcano.

"It is inconceivable that they were not aware of the dangers."

Clare Short: Called islanders "greedy" in 1997

At the time of the eruption DFID minister Clare Short was critical of the island authorities' attitude to emergency aid, calling them "greedy".

But Mr Burris' latest report says there was not enough aid to rehouse hundreds made homeless by the volcano.

In a statement endorsed by the inquest jury, he appealed to UK Prime Minister Tony Blair to provide further assistance.

He adds that the current situation could be best described by what he says is one of Mr Blair's favourite words - "pathetic".

Minister flies in

The DFID said £59m had been spent on Montserrat between July 1995 and last March, with a further £75m being spent on a three-year redevelopment plan between 1998 and 2001.

DFID minister George Foulkes is travelling to the island on Tuesday to sign a new agreement guaranteeing the £75m.

But Montserrat Chief Minister David Brandt says he will ask for a great deal more.

He called the report "a just conclusion" and hoped it would be "a warning to the British that their lack of action has cost lives".

The massive eruption of the Soufriere Hills volcano on 25 June 1997, devastated seven villages with superheated rocks, ash and gases.