Aircraft carrier ordered back to France

PARIS - The hulk of the aircraft carrier Clemenceau has been ordered back to France after the official state watchdog declared it to be a 27,000- tonne piece of "industrial waste".

The ruling ended a six-week chapter of blunders and misleading statements as the French military tried to export the Clemenceau to India for removal of residual asbestos and scrapping.

The 45-year-old ship, once the pride of the French Navy, left Toulon under tow on 31 December and is now circling in the Indian Ocean.

Following yesterday's ruling by the Conseil d'Etat in Paris, the Clemenceau will be towed back to the Mediterranean, incurring, once again, multi-million "compensation" charges for passing through the Suez canal.

The ruling is a triumphant vindication for Greenpeace and three other ecological groups who had protested from the beginning that the export of the Clemenceau broke EU rules.

Opposition politicians - relatively quiet until now - described the Clemenceau affair yesterday as a "fiasco" which had exposed France to "international ridicule".

Francois Hollande, first secretary of the Socialist Party, said he would press for an official inquiry.

President Chirac decided yesterday to cut his losses. Within minutes of the Conseil d'etat ruling, he ordered the aircraft carrier home.

The Clemenceau will be returned to French waters immediately, the Elysee Palace announced.

There it will be be placed "in a holding position, in perfect conditions of safety, until a final solution is found for its scrapping".

- INDEPENDENT