PRESSURE is mounting on a North-East firm which has won a contract to recycle a fleet of obsolete American warships.

Friends of the Earth has joined Teesside community group IMPACT to voice its concerns about the 13 vessels that are expected to cross the Atlantic this month.

Known as the Ghost Fleet, they will be towed from the James River, in Virginia, to Billingham company Able UK's Teesside Environmental Reclamation and Recycling Centre (TERRC) at Greatham, near Hartlepool, where they will be dismantled in a dry dock.

The company said 200 permanent jobs will be created but Friends of the Earth and IMPACT fear the environmental impact will outweigh the economic benefits.

A spokesman for the two organisations said: "The Teesside area has for too long suffered the blight of the chemical industry and the community are again being overlooked.

"Despite the promise of 50 new jobs in an area of high unemployment many local people are extremely concerned about the health and environmental threats posed by the ships.

Friends of the Earth has made a formal request for the Health and Safety Executive to carry out urgent investigations and put a hold on any emissions until the investigation is complete.

It wants the ships to be scrapped in American waters unless there are overriding environmental reasons for them to be exported.