The disaster contaminated 160 miles of coastline

The grounding of the Sea Empress led to the polluting of the Pembrokeshire coast, with 70,000 tonnes of crude oil.

The official report into the incident said that while an emergency salvage tug would not have prevented the initial grounding it would have made it possible to secure the vessel more quickly.

A salvage tug has been based at Falmouth in Cornwall, for the past four years but had only been in operation during winter months.

Talks are also to begin with the Irish government over the provision of year-round cover for the Irish Sea.

Five years ago - 15 February 1996 - more than 72,000 tonnes of crude oil were spilt at the entrance to Milford Haven estuary after the Sea Empress tanker ran aground.

The spillage contaminated 120 miles of Welsh coastline which led to a �60m clean-up operation.

A fine of �4m was later imposed on the Milford Haven Port Authority. The penalty was slashed on appeal to �750,000.

Court of Appeal judges had been told that the original fine was putting the economic future of the port at risk.

John Archer-Thompson, of the Dale Fort Field Study Centre, explained that west Wales escaped a more serious disaster at the time of the Sea Empress spill.

"If it had not been for the fact that the birds were not here and the prevailing winds were blowing the oil away from the sensitive sites, we could have had a horrible disaster."

Morgan Parry of the World Wildlife Fund Cymru said the tug boat would increase preparations for a major incident.

"I am not necessarily convinced that we are near preventing further accidents happening," Mr Parry added.

"There have been 11 major accidents since the Sea Empress and there are about 20 minor incidents a year."