THE European Union last night stepped into the row over controversial plans to scrap the US Navy's "ghost fleet" in the North-East.

EU environment commissioner Margot Wallstrom is to urge the US Government not to allow any more toxic ships to set sail and will also raise the matter with the British Government.

The Canisteo and the Caloosahatchee sailed last Tuesday and are already 500 miles into their 4,000 mile trans-Atlantic crossing.

The Second World War era tankers are due to reach the Able UK yard at Graythorp, Hartlepool, on November 5, where they will be dismantled.

Two more vessels are expected to leave the James River in Virginia later today.

Last night, Ms Wallstrom said that the scheme posed too great a risk to the environment and intends to raise the matter with UK Environment Secretary Margaret Beckett.

She told UK environment correspondents at a lunch in London yesterday that Europe should send help to the US but that the ships should not be allowed to cross the Atlantic for breaking up.

"We are looking into the legal aspects of this but I'm here to protect the environment. It seems to me too much of an environmental risk.

"It doesn't make any sense to take that risk by sending these apparently very hazardous ships and old ones, also leaking hazardous substances into the James River in America, to England.

"I propose that we instead send the expertise in the other direction if necessary.

"We can assist them in dealing with these ships and show them how to break them up and recover them. But keep them there, don't send them here."

Able UK, which won the £11m contract, has already agreed to postpone its original plan to have all 13 ships on their way by the end of next month.

The decision follows the imposition of a temporary restraining order by a US court on nine of the fleet pending legal action by environmentalists.

Mrs Wallstrom's announcement adds to pressure from various agencies urging the US authorities to deal with their own scrap.

Friends of the Earth has written to the US Environmental Protection Agency urging it to stop the ships' passage to the UK.

It is also planning to take the Environment Agency in the UK to judicial review for modifying a waste management licence that enables the company to carry out the work.

Planning permission for Able UK to build a dry dock has not been granted by Hartlepool Borough Council, raising further concerns about effects on the environment