THE controversy surrounding the exporting and dismantling of obsolete toxic ships will be highlighted at a conference today.

Environmentalists from both sides of the Atlantic will join delegates from the shipping industry for the first joint working group meeting in London.

The meeting comes as a North-East company waits on permission from planners and the Environment Agency to start work scrapping four vessels from the US naval reserve fleet.

The so-called Ghost Ships arrived at the Able UK yard, at Hartlepool, in October 2003 amid some fierce opposition from locals.

Opponents said the vessels, which had been towed from the James River, in Virginia, and which formed part of an £11m order, should have been dismantled in the US or stripped of any dangerous substances before they were exported.

The Basel Action Network, a campaign group based in Seattle, won a legal challenge to prevent the other nine ships leaving the US, and they are still moored on the river.

Today's conference will include presentations by the network, Greenpeace, and the International Maritime Organisation (IMO), which is acting on behalf of the shipping industry.

The IMO is fighting to retain the right to export ships containing asbestos, PCBs and other toxic materials without prior decontamination because of cost implications.

But Greenpeace will today unveil a report that demonstrates how a fund paid for by ship owners could lead to vessels being stripped of the waste before export.

Environmentalists said the costs were manageable and were only half a per cent of the industry's turnover.

* For the latest news, go to www.ghostships.co.uk

Read more about the Ghost Ships campaign here.