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by CHHAY SOPHAL, Reuters

Police in Sihanoukville said managers of a local firm had been questioned over 650 tons of waste dumped on the main route into the city. The firm said it had imported the waste from South Korea in May, said an officer who did not want to be identified.

Provincial police chief Em Bun Sath said the waste included film for X-rays and magnetic cassette and video tapes. He said he did not know if it was hazardous. Police said the waste had been in sacks which locals had taken to store rice or to make hammocks.

The South Korean embassy said it had no knowledge of the case.

``But it's a very sensitive matter and we will do our best to find out,'' said embassy counselor Kim Kyung-hun. "As of now we have no information.''

Environment Minister Mok Mareth told Reuters the government had filed suit Thursday against a local firm, Muth Vuthy, for handling a 3,000-tonne shipment of mercury-tainted industrial waste from Taiwanese petrochemical giant Formosa Plastics.

He said the government was also preparing to file suit against the Taiwanese firm for dumping the waste.

``First we have to file suit against the local firm, then we will look for an international lawyer to file a suit against the Taiwanese firm,'' he said.

Wednesday, Cambodian soldiers began loading blocks of the waste into plastic-lined drums and the government, which wants it shipped back to Taiwan, said it would demand compensation.

``We have to look into the damage first before deciding the amount,'' Mok Mareth said.

Taipei has urged Phnom Penh to mount an inquiry, calling it ''irrational'' to blame Taiwan without sufficient evidence.

The Green Formosa Front, a Taiwanese environmental group, issued a statement in Phnom Penh criticizing the Taiwanese government for allowing the shipment and calling on Formosa Plastics to ship back the waste immediately.

``Enterprises which produce this kind of hazardous waste should be capable of disposing of them,'' it said.

Samples have been sent to Hong Kong and Thailand for evaluation. The Japanese Embassy said a scientist from the Japanese environmental agency's Minamata Institute was due in Cambodia Thursday night to help analyze the waste.

The institute is named after Japan's Minamata Bay, where hundreds of people died after eating seafood polluted by mercury compounds dumped into the sea between 1953 and 1960.

The Taiwanese waste, believed to be compressed ash from an industrial incinerator, was spread out in a huge pile on open land about 10 km (six miles) from Sihanoukville city.

It had been in sacks bearing skull-and-crossbones danger signs, but many of these were taken away by local people for rice storage or other purposes.

Officials said local people had also carted off some of the waste to use for home repairs before dumping it near water sources when they heard it was dangerous, raising fears of contamination.

The Taiwan firm has said the waste has mercury traces, but had been certified by Taiwan's Environmental Protection Administration as unhazardous and safe for landfill disposal.

Asked what level of such contaminants were acceptable in Cambodia, Mok Marath said:

``No waste at all is allowed to be imported into Cambodia. We cannot keep it here. We are a small country. Why should we keep anybody else's waste?'' he said.

Officials have blamed seven deaths on the dumping and the rioting and panic that followed.

More than 10,000 people have fled Sihanoukville province since the weekend fearing contamination, officials said.