Environmentalists on both sides of the Atlantic had protested a $17.8 million (€13.25 milllion) deal the U.S. Maritime Administration gave a British salvage yard, Able UK, to dismantle 13 ships from the "ghost fleet." American shipbreaking firms also were upset.

The U.S. Maritime Administration announced Thursday it will not send nine ships remaining under that contract to England, but instead will look to hire American yards. Four ships that were towed across the ocean in 2003 still have not been scrapped because the yard has not been able to obtain environmental permits.

A spokeswoman said the maritime agency has not lost faith in Able UK but has grown tired of the permitting delays because dozens of other obsolete ships loaded with waste oil, toxic PCBs, lead and mercury are awaiting disposal in Virginia, Texas and California.

"We have a mandate from Congress to complete this work and need to get on with it," spokeswoman Shannon Russell said, adding that the four-year odyssey with the British contract has motivated the Maritime Administration to stay at home.

"I don't believe ... we'll be looking to do overseas contracts any time soon," she said.

Under an amended contract, Able UK will be paid $10.1 million (€7.52 million) to safely cut up and reccycle the four ghost ships already there — if the yard ccan obtain all environmental permits and open for business as a shipbreaker. Its latest attempt to gain such local approval in Hartlepool was rejected last October. A new vote is expected in September.

Able UK also will receive two unfinished American oilers, worth millions of dollars if the four ghost ships are handled satisfactorily, Russell said.

Virginia governors and environmentalists have described the ships in the ghost fleet, located in the middle of the James River off Fort Eustis in Newport News, as "ticking time bombs" because of their toxic contents and thinning hulls.

One worst-case study concluded that if two ships split open in a storm, petroleum wastes could spread 50 miles on the James.

Since 2001, Congress and the Bush administration have funded scrapping contracts that have removed 55 obsolete vessels from the fleet. About 40 remain today.

President George W. Bush has proposed spending $20 million (€14.89 million) more iin 2008 on ship disposal, and an additional $7 million (€5.21 million) should be available by whittling the Able UK contract.