Bad weather prevented a Dutch tugboat hired to tow the 265-metre (870 foot) Clemenceau to northwestern India from taking control of the vessel at sea off the French Mediterranean navy base in Toulon, said the head of the company charged with the ship's disposal, Briac Beilvert.

He said the company expected the tug would be able to take charge of the 24,200 tonne ship, which no longer has a power plant, on Monday for the two-month voyage to the Alang shipyard, the world's largest ship-breaking yard.

On Saturday after the Panamanian-registered Ship Decommissioning Industry Corp took out a court injunction against Greenpeace activists, five French navy tugs towed the carrier out of the harbour while boats formed a cordon to prevent interference and a helicopter and a navy plane patrolled overhead.

Greenpeace and three other groups have tried for months to block the transfer on the grounds that Indian shipyard workers are not properly protected from the hazards of working with asbestos, which can cause fatal lung diseases.

But another environmental group, Robin des Bois (Robin Hood), said the French state, in a first for European shipping, had undertaken 90 percent of the asbestos decontamination work.

The Clemenceau, which was commissioned in 1961 and took part in the 1991 Gulf War, was taken out of service six years after the war when it was superseded by the nuclear-powered aircraft carrier Charles de Gaulle.

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