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by AZLIN AHMAD, Reuters

The comment was made as Anglo-Dutch ship ``Encounter Bay'' departed Singapore apparently en route to a scrapyard in China. Greenpeace claims the ship is contaminated by toxic materials. ``China has (something of) a leading role in the international community in terms of stopping foreign waste from coming into the country,'' Clement Lam of Greenpeace China told reporters.

On Monday, Greenpeace activists hung a giant banner reading ``P&O Nedlloyd Stop Toxic Trade'' on the ship, which is owned by Anglo-Dutch firm P&O Nedlloyd.

Singapore's Environment Ministry said in a statement it understood the ship's next port of call was Hong Kong. Greenpeace said the ship had been sold to Chinese shipbreakers and expect it to ultimately end up in a scrapyard in China.

They said their expectations that China would not allow ships from entering Asian scrapyards without being decontaminated first were based on China's past strong position on prohibiting imports of waste materials in other forms.

But Greenpeace had not yet discussed the issue with Chinese authorities, although a meeting with the Chinese ambassador in Singapore was scheduled for later on Tuesday, Lam said.

Greenpeace officials are protesting what they say is the limited care with which shipowners dispose of vessels in Asia.

Ships sent to shipbreakers in India, China, Bangladesh and Pakistan often contain hazardous materials such as lead and asbestos, but very little protection is provided for the environment or for workers at those scrapyards, Greenpeace said.

The officials said they had written to Singapore authorities asking that ``Encounter Bay'' be detained under the Basel Convention.

The United Nations' Basel Convention prohibits the export of hazardous waste from the nations of the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) to non-OECD countries.

But a statement by the Singapore Environment Ministry received by Reuters on Tuesday said Singapore did not consider ``Encounter Bay'' hazardous waste and saw no legal ground to detain the ship or send it back to the Netherlands.

It said the Basel Convention defined ``waste'' as substances or objects which are disposed or intended to be disposed of, but that ships carrying such substances were themselves not defined as wastes.

Letters to governments of ports that ``Encounter Bay'' had stopped at prior to Singapore had produced similar responses, Greenpeace officials said.

The ship had stopped at five other ports before Singapore, including in Spain, Australia and New Zealand.

``A transit government is not going to have nearly the same amount of concern as that of a recipient state or of the export state where there is liability,'' said Jim Puckett of Basel Action Network, who is working with Greenpeace on the current issue.

``But we're very hopeful that certain governments that have been much stronger on this issue like the EU and China will take some steps,'' he said.