Tourism to the south-west coast of France may suffer as oil pockets drifting on to the beaches between Biarritz and Bordeaux from the tanker Prestige, which sank off Spain in November, are cleaned up by emergency services.

The country's Ecology Minister described the risk of slicks hitting the coast over a period of months as 'a sword of Damocles that would hang over France for a long time'. Solaire Holidays, a tour operator based in Brittany where the huge Erika slick hit in 1999, warned that, years after an 'efficient and successful clean-up operation', client numbers haven't recovered.