France is going to set up floating barriers to keep oil spills from the sunken tanker Prestigefrom hitting land.
The French government cabinet approved a plan to set up the barriers in the south-west Pyrenees-Atlantiques region at a special crisis meeting. It was also decided to extend the emergency plan to the Landes region.
Ecology Minister Roselyne Bachelot the floating slicks remain west of the Spanish city of Bilbao.
She added that the oil "should not hit our coasts for at least 72 hours, which gives us time to gather up the maximum amount of oil" at sea.
On Saturday, a few patches of oil were sighted about 12 miles off the south-west coast of France.
The French Defence Minister Michele Alliot-Marie says those patches may have come from other boats taking advantage of the Prestige spill to empty their tanks in the Bay of Biscay.
"Some (boats) are so irresponsible and criminal that they've continued to empty their tanks," Mr Alliot-Marie told fishing and tourism representatives.
The single-hulled Prestigebroke in two on November 13th and sank nearly a week after the leakage started.
Spain's government says that altogether it spilled up to 17,000 of the 77,000 tons of fuel oil it was carrying. Ecologists put the figure at 20,000 tons. AP