THE deal to bring toxic ships from the US Ghost Fleet to Teesside was branded "extraordinarily irresponsible" as a row broke out between Euro MPs.

Members of the European Parliament's environment committee clashed ahead of the arrival in Britain of the first four vessels from the 13-strong fleet.

The Labour MEP for Yorkshire and the Humber, David Bowe, accused the EU's environment commissioner, Margot Wallstrom, of creating a cloud of confusion by dealing in fiction and not fact.

Mr Bowe said Teesside was the best place for the former US Navy ships to be dismantled and accused opponents of scaremongering over the amount of hazardous material they have on board.

But two MEPs from Ireland criticised the UK Government for sanctioning the £11m deal between Hartlepool firm Able UK and authorities in the US.

Green Party member Patricia McKenna said: "It is absolutely appalling that the United Kingdom is allowing itself to be a dumping ground for something the US did not want to deal with.

"The authorities there deemed these vessels to be too dangerous to break up in the US, and it seems to me quite incredible that they would then be transported 4,500 miles across the Atlantic to and through EU waters to be disposed of in the UK."

Labour member for Ireland Proinsais De Rossa said: "The United Kingdom is acting in an extraordinarily irresponsible way."

Ms Wallstrom said: "I do not see that this is the best way forward when, apparently, there are recycling facilities in the United States."

Mr Bowe replied: "We are doing this properly and we are doing it because we decided ten years ago not to dump our oil rigs into the North Sea, but to bring them back to Teesside and other places and recycle them.

"We have the capacities. We have the knowledge. We have the capabilities to do what the Americans cannot do, because they dump their oil rigs into the Gulf of Mexico."

The first two ships from the contaminated fleet left their moorings on the James River, in Virginia, a fortnight ago and are expected to arrive at Teesside on November 5.

Two further vessels set sail last week, but the remaining nine will not be allowed to leave until next April at the earliest after the US Maritime Administration agreed to carry out an environmental assessment on the risks.

Campaigners said the ships, which are said to contain a total of 698 tonnes of harmful PCB chemicals and more than 3,300 tonnes of fuel oil as well as asbestos, pose a danger to workers and the environment.

Able UK, which beat US companies to the deal by offering the lowest tender, dismissed the environmental risk claims as a total distortion of reality.