Scilly islanders are calling for tougher measures against ships which pose a pollution threat to the wildlife haven.

The island council wants the introduction of a four-point action plan to safeguard the environment.

It would include a compulsory exclusion zone and radar surveillance.

Islanders claim ships flout the present voluntary system.

TANKER DANGER

We are really concerned about the higher numbers of very large, very powerful vessels Steve Watt

Oil spills damage

In 1997 two cargo ships ran aground off the Isles of Scilly and islanders fear the next incident could spell disaster for sealife.

Dave Flumm, of the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds, said: "We've only got 1,500 pairs of storm petrels on the Isles of Scilly - the only nesting colony in England - and they would be wiped out if there was a serious oil spill."

The Scillies were given so-called Area to be Avoided status after the 1993 grounding of the Brear oil tanker off the Shetland Islands, but it has no statutory powers.

And Steve Watt, from the Isles of Scilly council, said it is regularly ignored by ships.

He said: "Four in particular went southwards between Scilly and the mainland and they are supposed to go three miles south to the Wolf Rock, before turning left and going up the Channel.

"But they cut across the northward-bound separation zone, which is a bit like crossing a motorway without looking."

Andrew George, MP for St Ives, whose constituency includes the Isles of Scilly, said he backed the islanders, but warned: "The UK can impose regulations on its own ships, but everything needs agreement through the International Maritime Organisation.

"And the wheels there move very slowly."

Devon has already made moves to protect its coastline through the Atlantic Arc Commission.

The county council is asking for the south west coastline to be given special protection from older, single-hulled oil tankers like the Prestige, which caused a massive spill off Spain.

Single-hull tankers are due to be phased out by 2015.

But the council does not want to wait until then and is asking the Atlantic Arc Commission, which represents countries around the Bay of Biscay, to declare the whole of the area as a Particularly Sensitive Sea Area.