The tanker was carrying 70,000 tonnes of fuel oil when it cracked and split in two following stormy weather last Wednesday.

Smit Salvage barges towed the stricken vessel out to sea after no port was willing to take the tanker, where it split in two and sank.

"A lot of oil went down with this (front) part … we hope the majority will go down with the ship. Most of the containers are intact," said a Smit spokesman.

Spain and Portugal have engaged in a war of wards in attempt to pass the buck, each saying the vessel was in each other's territory, while France's President Chirac has slammed 'the inability of European officials to take the necessary measures to fight against the laxity that allows the development of these rustbuckets."

France bore the brunt of the last similar disaster - the sinking of the Erika off the coast of Brittany in 1999.

The Prestige was owned by the Greek Mare Shipping company and chartered by the Swiss-based Russian oil trader Crown Resources.

The community outrage over the environmental disaster is sure to have a negative effect of oilfield developments and shipping in environmentally delicate areas, with Australia's Great Barrier Reef shaping up to be a major battleground between environmentalists and the oil industry.