Controversy over South Atlantic fire

British soldiers are alleged to have started a fire on a South Atlantic Island, damaging one of the most important seabird sites in the world.

Conservationists fear hundreds of birds died in the fire which swept over South Jason Island, north-west of the Falklands.

The Ministry of Defence says it has launched an urgent inquiry into the cause of the fire, but denies any birds have been killed.

The fire, which lasted five days, is said to have been started accidentally by an eight-man ordnance disposal team clearing the area where two Argentine Skyhawk planes were shot down during the Falklands War.

Becky Ingham, of Falklands Conservation, says it has caused a major environmental disaster and that 90% of the tussac grass on the island had been destroyed.

Jim Stevenson, overseas programmes officer for the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds, said the incident raised questions "about the validity of this military exercise when, in dry weather at the height of the breeding season, troops attempt to clear ordnance which posed little or no threat to people".

The MoD says an environmental assessment had been made on Thursday by independent expert, Ian Strange, who said there was no damage to the rookery. The fire had stopped within feet of the colony.

South Jason Island, a mile wide and four miles long, is an uninhabited nature reserve owned by the Falkland Islands Government. It is home to an estimated 1,750 pairs of black-browed albatrosses and 900 pairs of rockhopper penguins, it is reported.

This species of albatross has declined by 30% in the past 20 years and a major campaign by BirdLife International, backed by the Prince of Wales, has been launched to save it from fishing.

An intensive fire-fighting mission was launched with British forces deploying two helicopters, a Chinook and a Sea King, after the fire began eight days ago.