British ships carrying mixed oxide plutonium for sale to Japan, which reprocesses the plutonium, routinely ignore the objections of the region's small countries and sail through their exclusive economic zones.

Vanuatu, for one, objects strongly to the practice and has included on its delegation to the 16-nation summit Jon Van Dyke, a University of Hawaii law professor to advise the body, which has the waste issue on its agenda.

"Unless the Pacific nations are a little bit more feisty and confrontational about this, then the Pacific will continue to be used as a nuclear highway," Van Dyke told AFP.

With European nations now wanting to fish in Pacific waters, he suggested that access to the lucrative tuna stocks be tied to an agreement not to move nuclear wastes through those same waters.

"This is the only area of the world that these ships must go through exclusive economic zones and go relatively near populated areas and very fragile eco-systems," he said.

He said the real cost of the waste shipments were being carried by the Pacific nations since the shipping companies and flag nations were not providing liability insurance in the event of accidents.

Because the consequences of an accident could be devastatingly widespread, it is commercially impossible to obtain insurance to cover such a mishap, he said.

Van Dyke said any accident involving a ship, whether waste is spilled or not, would have enormous consequences on the region with the rest of the world unwilling to eat fish from its waters and tourists avoiding travel there.

Vanuatu had attended a meeting earlier this year with the shipping nations and Van Dyke said they established that there was no clear answer to the question of liability

In the event of an accident any affected Pacific nation would have to file suit in a British court at considerable cost and time in an attempt to get compensation.

He said if the shipping nations were made to create a valid insurance liability scheme around the shipping operation it would become unviable.

Vanuatu has presented to the summit a detailed paper by Van Dyke on the legal regime around shipping nuclear waste.

"Because of the grave potential risks created by these shipments and because of the failure of the shippers to meet their obligations to protect coastal nations from these risks, coastal nations may be justified under international law to take unilateral or regional action to block future shipments."

Van Dyke said international bodies had created standards for shipboard safety of such waste, but no agreements existed on salvage responsibilities, liabilities and consultation.

Until these agreements can be reached the shipments "will continue to violate fundamental norms of international law and comity because they place coastal nations that receive no benefit from the shipments at grave risk of environmental disaster without any legal protections."

WAR.WIRE