"Sixty to 70 percent of the oil spilled ... has been cleaned up in the first phase of the operation from August 2006 to March 2007," Berge Hatjian, director general of the environment ministry, told a news conference.

Lebanon's coast was polluted by some 15,000 tonnes of fuel oil after the Israeli military bombed Lebanon's southern Jiyeh power station in mid-July, 2006 during its 34-day offensive against the Shiite militia Hezbollah.

Nearly three quarters of the Lebanese coast had been polluted by the oil, including more than 70 different sites such as beaches, historical ports and tourism resorts.

The oil spill was carried northward even reaching Syrian waters.

"Today, the sea is clear, but 26 rocky sites along the coast from the Jiyeh power station until the north of the country are still polluted by oil spills," he said.

Also, six underwater sites were still polluted, particularly in Jiyeh and in the port of Byblos, north of Beirut, he added.

"There are regions in Byblos and Amsheet where cleaning operations have yet to start," said Fadwa Tallab, an official from the non-governmental organisation Byblos Ecologia.

"Rocky coasts between Byblos and (the northern port of) Tripoli are still very polluted," US environmental expert Rick Steiner told the news conference.

Steiner, who has taken part in the mopping up operation since it began, warned that it was still unsafe for people to swim and fish in the polluted zones.

The second phase of the operations started in May and was due to be completed in October. During the third phase, which will last until 2011, the coast will be put under monitoring.

Lebanon has received backing, both material and financial, to clean up the oil spill from Lebanese and international environmental organisations, as well as the United States, France, Greece, Spain and Kuwait.

"The cost of cleaning up the pollution has been estimated at 150 million dollars, while damage to the environment was estimated at more than 167 million dollars," Hatjian said.

Several obstacles have hampered the progress of the clean-up work, among them Lebanon's meager means as well as the resignation of environment minister Yaacub Sarraf, who left the Western-backed cabinet in November 2006 along with five pro-Syrian allies.

The response to the environmental disaster has also been hindered by the political paralysis caused by the resignations.

Lebanon has since launched an appeal for international aid to help cover the cost of the clean-up.

Greenpeace has described the spill, which polluted about 150 kilometres (90 miles) of the Lebanese coast, as an "underwater nightmare" and a "time bomb" because oil had sunk to the seabed.

All rights reserved. � 2005 Agence France-Presse. Sections of the information displayed on this page (dispatches, photographs, logos) are protected by intellectual property rights owned by Agence France-Presse. As a consequence, you may not copy, reproduce, modify, transmit, publish, display or in any way commercially exploit any of the content of this section without the prior written consent of Agence France-Presse.