Relief over 'less severe' fuel spill

US Coastguard chiefs say an oil and fuel spill from a freighter that broke in two when it ran aground off Alaska is probably thousands of gallons less than they feared.

Incident commander Captain Ron Morris said just 41,138 gallons of bunker fuel were inside the tank that was directly breached when the Malaysian soya bean freighter Selendang Ayu split in two last Wednesday.