BUSINESS leaders in the region have backed moves to make the North-East a specialist centre for decommissioning ships.

The North East Chamber of Commerce (NECC) has welcomed demands by an all-party committee of MPs that the Government establish a thriving ship-dismantling industry.

The Commons Environment and Rural Affairs Committee said Britain's ageing ships were being dismantled under wholly inadequate conditions on beaches in Pakistan, India and Bangladesh.

It blamed lack of action by the Government for the problem and said standards of health, safety and environmental protection at ship-breaking yards in developing countries were unacceptable by the standards of developed countries.

Rob McMullen, NECC Tees Valley area manager, said: "It is time that people lobbying to protect the ecology of the planet, such as Greenpeace, looked at other parts of the world where ships are being broken down by unskilled workers, including children, in desperate conditions.

"Allowing untrained labourers to handle these potentially hazardous substances without the right protection or training is far more dangerous for the environment and for themselves.

"These ships should be dismantled in a highly professional, well organised manner using the skills and the trained workforce that we have here in the Tees Valley."

The Commons inquiry was set up following the dispute last year over the US auxiliary fleet - the so-called ghost ships - and plans by Able UK, of Hartlepool, to recycle them.

Mr McMullen's comments come a year after the arrival of the two former US Navy ships.

They are still docked at Able UK's Hartlepool dock, awaiting a decision on whether they can be scrapped.

Environmentalists have argued that the UK should not be used as a dumping ground for unwanted US warships.