Environmental campaigners have staged a protest in Singapore harbour to denounce the scrapping of contaminated ships in Asian countries.

The activists from Greenpeace and the Basel Action Network unfurled a banner on an Anglo-Dutchcontainer ship, Encounter Bay, which is on its way to China to be broken up.

They say seven hundred ships are exported to Asia for scrap each year and workers in countries such as India, Pakistan and China are exposed to dangerous materials such as asbestos, explosive liquids and lead paint.

Singapore's environment ministry said it would look into the protesters' complaint.