No new disposal contracts will be awarded to salvage yards until a discrepancy over environmental laws governing ship recycling is resolved, said Sean T. Connaughton, the maritime administrator, in an interview this week.

"We're kind of in a Catch-22 and need to work our way out of it," said Connaughton, adding that the legal tangle could take months to unravel.

Also this week, Connaughton said he has ordered "a complete review" of a controversial 2003 contract that called for 13 ships from the James River to be dismantled in England.

The $17.8 million contract caused a storm of protest and lawsuits from American and British environmentalists, who complained the United States should not be dumping toxic wastes from its obsolete ships on other nations.

To date, none of the Virginia ships have been scrapped in England, because the yard there, Able UK, still lacks all government permits to operate such a facility.

After the lawsuits were settled, four ghost fleet vessels were towed to Able UK, near the city of Hartlepool in northeast England. They remain untouched and anchored outside of Hartlepool, where a municipal panel vot ed overwhelmingly again in October to reject scrapping permits.

"Obviously, it's a situation that has to be addressed as quickly as practicable," Connaughton said.

Connaughton, a maritime lawyer and former Coast Guard officer, has been in charge of the Maritime Administration since September. A branch of the U.S. Department of Transportation, the administration cares for surplus fleets in Virginia, Texas and California, among other shipping duties.

Congress had mandated that all unwanted ships be safely dismantled by September 2006, fearing that the aging hulks could spring leaks and cause environmental harm. The deadline, however, was missed.

But 55 former Navy, military-support and merchant vessels have been broken down and recycled since 2001, mostly from the ghost fleet. Today, about 40 ships are left off Fort Eustis in Newport News, though the ones most likely to leak are gone.

The problem leading to the temporary scrapping freeze is based on a federal rule, which requires the hulls of junk ships to be scrubbed of marine growth before leaving for a salvage yard.

The cleaning technique, called scamping, is designed to curb the spread of invasive species that might be clinging to hulls and could cause ecological problems elsewhere.

Questions have surfaced, initially in California and now in Virginia, about whether scamping violates state environmental laws.

The worry is that the scrubbing action may release pieces of lead paint and other pollutants into host waters.

The Virginia Department of Environmental Quality is trying to determine whether scamping ghost fleet ships should require a state permit and pollution controls, said Bill Hayden, a department spokesman.

"It could be a concern to us," Hayden said.

The Navy is exempt from the rule, which the Coast Guard began enforcing with ghost fleet ships in January 2006.

The last junk vessel to leave the fleet was the Hunley, a former Navy repair vessel. Bound for a New Orleans salvage yard, the Hunley left Hampton Roads earlier this month - just before the Maritime Administration announced its freeze, said Shannon Russell, an agency spokeswoman.

The freeze and the resurfacing of the Able UK contract come as the Bush administration has requested $20 million for ship scrapping next budget year.

Once the disposal program resumes, Connaughton said, much of the attention will turn toward the fleets in California and Texas, since the most environmentally risky vessels in the James River already are gone.

Still, he expected "two or three" ghost fleet ships to be dismantled in 2007.

Connaughton also said his agency may seek the return of the four ships now anchored in England, though he added his preference would be to scrap them at the Able UK yard.

The original contract with Able UK expired at the end of 2005. It has been extended or modified several times since then, including again in February.

Three phone calls to the British yard this week were not returned.

Alastair Rae, a public affairs officer with the city of Hartlepool, said that while many local politicians see the contract as spurring jobs and economic gain, popular opinion remains clear.

"They don't like the idea of America dumping its wastes here," Rae said. "They worry about the environmental implications, the threat to tourism."

Polly Parks, an American ship-breaking consultant, said it is high time the Able UK contract be scrapped.

"It was a stupid idea to begin with, and they need to get rid of it," Parks said. "I mean, this has been dragging on for four years, and for what?"