ENVIRONMENTAL groups were last night awaiting the outcome of a fresh legal challenge over the export of nine rusting Ghost Ships to the North-East.

Papers have now been filed into a US court in a bid to persuade a judge to overturn her decision to allow the ships belonging to the US Maritime Administration (Marad) to leave the States for Able UK's Hartlepool breakers' yard.

In March, Washington district Judge Rosemary Collyer dismissed a case brought by environmentalists who said the vessels were laden with dangerous chemicals such as asbestos and cancer-causing PCBs and as such their export would violate US laws.

But green campaigners claimed they had lost on "technical grounds" and said they still needed assurances the law would be upheld.

Martin Wagner, a lawyer representing environmental group Earth Justice, said: "All the briefs have been filed, and we will simply await the judge's decision.

"If there is reason to believe Marad will export any vessels before the judge decides, we might ask her to expedite her decision, but barring that, we will simply wait.

"There's no way to tell how long she will take to decide."

Jim Puckett, of the Seattle- based Basel Action Network, said the judge's decision assumed that Marad would not export the ships without first ensuring Able had all the proper permissions to carry out the work and that consent was also forthcoming from UK authorities.

He said that while Marad had said it would not, at the same time it had stated it was not legally obliged to do so.

Last week, the UK Environment Agency criticised Able's bid to scrap up to 13 former US Navy ships, saying there was too little detail in its plans to develop its Teesside Environmental Reclamation and Recycling Centre (TERRC) to carry out the work.

It has asked Hartlepool Borough Council to delay any decision on three planning applications submitted by Able in January.

English Nature, the RSPB and Friends of the Earth have also lodged objections with the council.

Four ships, forming part of an £11m deal with Marad, did make the journey across the Atlantic in October 2003, but have been held in limbo ever since because approval to scrap them has still not been granted