21 minutes ago
ATHENS (AFP) - Officials from the United Nations, European Union and a maritime organization are set to meet in Greece Thursday to map out a strategy for containing a massive Mediterranean oil spill caused by the conflict in Lebanon.
Nearly 15,000 tons of leaked oil from the Jiyyeh electric plant, bombed by Israel last month, has polluted some 140 kilometers (87 miles) of the Lebanese coast and spread north into Syrian waters, according to the United Nations Environment Programme.
If all the oil from the damaged facility, 30 miles south of Beruit, were to seep into the sea, officials said, the environmental fallout could rival the 1989 Exxon Valdez spill that devastated Alaska's Prince William Sound.
"The objective of the meeting is to coordinate a common strategy to confront the pollution and to devise actions to prevent the possible expansion of the oil spill," said a communique released by the UNEP and the International Maritime Organization, which are jointly hosting the meeting in Piraeus.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20060815/wl_mideast_afp/mideastconflictlebanonenvironmentoilun