Polly Vacher leaving Argentina last month

Polly Vacher, 59, from Drayton, near Abingdon, Oxfordshire, is nearing the South Pole and could help an Australian pilot, Jon Johanson, who has been stranded there.

Australia's Foreign Minister Alexander Downer said Ms Vacher has offered to sell the fuel needed to fly him to New Zealand.

Her husband says the Argentinian government have agreed to fly some more aviation fuel in to replace that sold to Mr Johanson.

He has been stranded in the polar region because neither US nor New Zealand bases in the Antartic will sell him fuel because they want to discourage tourism there.

Mr Johanson, who flew over the South Pole, was planning to fly on to Argentina, but was forced to turn back on Monday and land his RV-4 plane at the US McMurdo base.

British base

Mr Downer told reporters Ms Vachar, who has stashed fuel at McMurdo ahead of her attempted flight there, has agreed to sell Mr Johanson some of her fuel.

Ms Vachar, an experienced aviator, is herself attempting to fly over the South Pole as part of a trip around the world.

Mrs Vacher has already completed a record-breaking flight

She is at the British Rothera base in Antarctica on the other side of the Pole.

She set off for McMurdo on 5 December, but was forced to turn back because of high winds.

Ms Vachar's PR, Suzie Dunbar, told BBC News Online she could not confirm that the pilot had agreed to sell fuel to Mr Johanson, adding that she thought the British aviator would need the fuel herself.

Reports say that Ms Vachar has abandoned her trip, but Ms Dunbar said finding new sources of fuel was "being worked on at the moment".