Greenpeace awaits the PCB ship

LE HAVRE (AFP) - A score of militants from the environmental group Greenpeace awaited the return here of a vessel believed loaded with Australian toxic waste for incineration in France. The 18 tons of polychlorobiphenyls (PCBs) have been dodging the Greenpeace team since last Saturday, when the Maria Laura was scheduled to be unloaded here.

The ship went on to Antwerp, Belgium, but was sent back to France. On Wednesday it arrived in the British port of Felixstowe, where Greenpeace believes it transferred the waste to the Chiara. The environmentalists, waiting with diving gear and rubber rafts, say they will attempt to board the Chiara and demand to check its cargo in Le Havre.

Greenpeace says it is protesting against 'France becoming the garbage can of the world' and claims the PCBs is only a first, 'trial' shipment of Australian waste to be incinerated at the Tredi plant in Saint- Vulbas, near the Swiss border.