A CAMPAIGN has been launched to recycle ships in the UK rather than send them to Third World countries to be dismantled.

The initiative follows the controversy over the so-called Ghost Ships, which were sent to the North-East from the US last year amid claims they contained harmful materials and dangerous chemicals.

Campaign group Greenpeace said the real scandal involved UK ships being sent to Third World countries, where they were dismantled by children.

Hartlepool MP and former trade secretary Peter Mandelson, and officials from the GMB union, joined Greenpeace to launch the initiative in London yesterday.

The Government was urged to develop a modern ship recycling industry in the UK and to help stop British ships being sent to countries, including Bangladesh and India, to be broken up under "dangerous and polluting" conditions.

Work on scrapping the Ghost Ships, which were brought across the Atlantic to a dry dock in Hartlepool, has been delayed because of disputes over the permits required from the Environment Agency.

Four of the ships - part of an £11m contract to dismantle 13 former US navy ships - are berthed at the Able UK yard, and a court case to decide the fate of the remaining ones will be held next month.

Mr Mandelson said his eyes had been opened to the issue of unregulated ship-breaking in southern Asia following last year's row over the Ghost Ships.

He said: "The conditions for workers in these developing countries are appalling.

"British firms and workers have the experience and potential to recycle UK ships in conditions that protect employees, their communities and the environment alike.

"The British Government has to be extremely alert to what happens to these ships once they leave their custody and their responsibility."

Stephen Tindale, director of Greenpeace UK, said: "We are saying to the Government it is time to take responsibility for Britain's own ships.

''They should give an immediate public commitment that all Government-owned vessels will be entirely recycled within the EU, and they should encourage other British ship-owners to break their ships in the EU.''

The GMB union's Julie Elliot said: "If we felt there was a risk to workers in this country by doing this work, we wouldn't be saying do it.

"But we know we have the skills and expertise to do it and we understand the risks involved."