Wine gift for Spanish clean-up teams

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 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.