Explosives (680 tons)ship seized by Greece heading for Sudan

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ATHENS (AFP) - A ship seized in Greek waters packed with explosives equivalent to an "atomic bomb" was on its way to Sudan with the shipment addressed to a non-existant chemicals firm, a senior Greek minister said.

The ship was carrying 680 tonnes of explosives, mainly TNT -- the "equivalent of an atomic bomb" -- and 8,000 detonators, Greek Merchant Marines Minister Georges Anomeritis said during a press conference.

"We are sure that the boat was loaded in Tunisia and was heading for Khartoum," the minister added.

Anomeritis refused to speculate about any possible terrorist links saying: "The probe is still underway.

"As no-one knows where the explosives were going, no-one knows what they were going to be used for," he insisted.

Acting on a tip-off received five days ago, special forces seized the Baltic Sky, flying the flag of the Comoros Islands in Africa, while it was sailing through the Ionian Sea off the west coast of Greece.

One ministry official described the vessel intercepted on Sunday as "packed to breaking point".

"This is the biggest quantity of explosives ever seized in the world from a boat sailing illegally," the merchant marine ministry said in a statement.

Ship documents showed the explosives were destined for a company called Integrated Chemicals and Development. The only address listed was a post office box in Sudan's capital Khartoum, Anomeritis said.

Sudan is still on a US list of nations supporting terrorism despite recognition last month by the US state department that the country was making progress in fighting terrorists.

The authenticity of the Baltic Sky's shipping documents were still being checked but they corresponded exactly to the cargo, the Greek ministry said.

According to the ship's log, the vessel yo-yoed around the Mediterranean Sea during May and June.

The ship left Albania on April 27 and docked in the Tunisian port of Gabes on May 12. It then passed through Turkey's Dardanelles Strait to arrive in the Turkish city of Istanbul on May 22. It travelled through the strait once again on June 2.

"It appears that at some stage someone realised that they were carrying a cargo that wasn't destined for anyone and maybe they were trying to get rid of it somewhere," the ministry said in a bid a explain the ship's erratic voyage.

The crew should have nevertheless informed Greek authorities that it was carrying dangerous materials 24 hours before it entered the country's territorial waters.

The ship's crew, five Ukrainians and two Azerbaijanis, was arrested and charged with failing to inform Greek authorities of the dangerous cargo.

The Ukrainian captain, 64-year-old Anatoly Baltak, also failed to inform the coastguard of the volatile shipment when his vessel was boarded.

The ship belonged to a company named Alpha Shipping ANC registered in the Marshall Islands in the south Pacific.

Special Greek patrol boats escorted it into a small port at Platy-Yali after it was seized.

Greek coastguards have been on a heightened state of alert for months. Greece has held the rotating EU presidency since January and Athens is due to host the 2004 Olympic Games (news - web sites).

The ship's manifest said the cargo of ammonium nitrate-based explosives was loaded in Gabes, Tunisia, on May 12 and bound for a company in Sudan. But Greek officials say the destination is only a post office box. No other details were disclosed about the firm, identified as Integrated Chemicals and Development.

According to shipping documents supplied by Anomeritis' office, the ship was carrying ANFO, an explosive often used in mining and construction. The vessel also carried 8,000 detonators.

The Baltic Sky apparently never headed toward the Suez Canal that would bring it to Sudan.

According to Turkey's Anatolia new agency, the ship passed through that country's Dardanelles strait on May 21 after declaring it was carrying explosives.

Anomeritis said it docked in Istanbul on June 2 and picked up its current captain, 64-year-old Anatoliy Baltak of Ukraine. Anatolia said it left June 5, saying it was headed for the Suez.

But the ship zigzagged across the Aegean Sea and eastern Mediterranean for two weeks before it was boarded by Greek special forces on Sunday in the southern Ionian Sea.

It was taken to Platiyali, a harbor surrounded by hills of olive groves 150 miles northwest of Athens. Security forces guarded the harbor's sole land entrance at a gate more than a mile from the ship.

The ship's history is a study in the workings of the maritime maze.

Greek officials say the 1,717-ton ship is registered to Alpha Shipping Inc. based in the Pacific Ocean nation of the Marshall Islands. Its flag, however, comes from the Comoros Islands, a nation off the southeast coast of Africa that is used by shipping companies as a flag of convenience to avoid taxes and regulations.

The 37-year-old ship built in a Hungarian shipyard was previously known as the Sea Runner and flew a Cambodian flag. It reportedly was detained in Britain last year after failing safety inspections but allowed to sail again after passing them with a new name in March.

According to Anomeritis, the ship was boarded as part of the international war on terror. Greece and other nations had tracked the ship for weeks, he said.

Anomeritis speculated that there might be several reasons behind the ship and its cargo: possibly, it was a terrorist shipment; perhaps a legitimate business deal fell apart; or its crew simply got cold feet delivering dangerous cargo with U.S.-led anti-terrorist efforts in full gear in Sudan and the Horn of Africa region.

''Someone could think that it would have some connection with terrorist groups,'' he told reporters in the port of Piraeus near Athens.

But Anomeritis tersely summed up the state of the investigation so far: ''Who knows?''

He added that the seizure was carried out after Greece communicated ''with all the international agencies and law enforcement organizations.'' He did not elaborate.

Although the ANFO explosives were commercially made and packed in pallets, homemade versions of ammonium nitrate bombs have been the explosive of choice in many terrorist attacks from Oklahoma City in 1995 to last year's Bali bombings.

Used as a fertilizer, ammonium nitrate is harmless. But when mixed with fuel oil, it becomes an explosive more powerful than dynamite.

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