with a Bermuda-registered tanker, earlier this year, have been charged with unintentional killing.

Nine people on board the British Trent burned to death on June 3 when the British Petroleum tanker was engulfed in flames after the collision in thick fog with the bulk carrier Western Winner in one of the world's busiest shipping lanes off the port of Ostend, Belgium.

"The Bruges public prosecutor's office has issued a summons against the captain and the ship-owning company,'' a spokesman from the prosecutor's office in Brussels said yesterday.

The 47-year-old South Korean captain, Dae Pung Gang, was charged with unintentional killing and unintentional wounding, and with breaking a number of shipping rules.

No further details of the charges against the captain were known.

But the ship owners, Liberia-based Alpha Beta Investment, were held civilly responsible on the same charges.

The case, which will be heard before the Bruges correctional court, was not expected to start before Easter.

The spokesman said the captain had to be given 80 days notice of the summons.

He added that the start of the case would be delayed if the captain, who has to sign for the summons, could not be traced.

And Bruges court officials said they believed defence lawyers would try to delay the start of hearings or to have the case, or at least the civil action, transferred to London to be heard by a specialised court dealing with shipping accidents.

Meanwhile, Government's principal marine surveyor, Mr. David Wright, yesterday said Bermuda's investigation into the tragic accident was winding down.

The probe, which is being carried out by the marine accident investigation branch of the UK Transport Department, is expected to be completed by the end of January.

Mr. Wright said once that has been done, a report will be forwarded to the International Maritime Organisation which is part of the United Nations.

"Our purpose (for the Bermuda investigation) is to find out where the tanker caught fire and why so many perished,'' he added.

Information from the Belgium report was also helpful, Mr. Wright said.

"We will use some of the information from the Belgians' section of the report,'' he said. "But the responsibility for taking action lies with the Belgian government.

"We'll observe with interest what happens.'' The Belgian report placed the responsibility for the accident solely on the shoulders of the Panamanian-registered cargo ship, clearing the Bermuda-registered tanker of any wrongdoing and ultimately saving the Island's "very good'' shipping reputation.

Belgian authorities said in June that a pilot boat tried for 45 minutes to warn the Western Winner it was dangerously close to the petrol-laded British Trent .

At the time of the accident, both ships were in the process of setting down or picking up pilots, which directly steer ships through the narrow sea lanes and up the Scheldt to the ports of Antwerp in Belgium and Flushing in the Netherlands.

About 150 vessels pass through the shipping lane every day.