ELEVEN of the toxic ships heading for the North-East have been named in a list of 40 which pose the largest environmental threat in the entire ghost fleet.

But a report revealing the potential dangers of the former US Navy support vessels was last night dismissed as misleading by the company planning to dismantle them.

Hartlepool-based Able UK reacted furiously to the report, entitled Needless Risk, which has been released by campaign groups the Basel Action Network and Friends of the Earth.

Managing director Peter Stephenson accused opponents of the £11m project of hypocrisy and rounded on European Environment Commissioner Margot Wallstrom, accusing her of not knowing the real facts.

Mr Stephenson said: "She seeks to imply that these vessels pose a massive threat of oil pollution by comparing them to the Prestige and Erika tanker disasters.

"In truth, the vessels contain only very small amounts of residual fuel oil in their tanks - even Friends of the Earth and the Basel Action Network recognise that fact - while the Prestige was laden with 70,000 tonnes of oil when she was wrecked and the Erika disaster led to a spill of 15,000 tonnes."

Mike Childs, campaign director for Friends of the Earth, said: "This export to the UK could give the Bush administration a terrible precedent and begin the wholesale dumping of this fleet of toxic ships on poor Asian communities.

"But whether it is the UK or China, we should not be throwing our toxic trash on our global neighbours.

"The US has a dozen companies that are able to do the job safely and with a minimum of risky transport."

Four of the fleet have left their moorings in Virginia and the first two are expected to arrive on Teesside on November 5. The other nine will not leave until next April at the earliest.