About a dozen protestors squatted outside Environment Minister A. Raja's office in the capital New Delhi, holding banners that read: "Don't make India a waste dump".

They demanded that the Indian government "ask France to take back the toxic decommissioned aircraft carrier," the environmental watchdog said in a statement.

The Clemenceau aircraft carrier is destined for a shipbreaking yard at the Indian coastal city of Alang to be broken up for scrap.

However, it remains held up in the Suez Canal while the Egyptian cabinet awaits a report from a commission to determine if the vessel's asbestos insulation may pose an environmental or health threat.

Environmental groups have charged that the asbestos as well as other toxic chemicals onboard the 27,000-ton warship puts shipyard workers at risk.

France says the vessel carries 45 tonnes of asbestos insulation, but the firm that helped partially decontaminate it before the trip says the amount is between 500 and 1,000 tonnes.

Greenpeace and the group Ban Asbestos have accused France of breaching the 1989 Basel Convention banning the export of toxic waste.

This week, India's Supreme Court barred the Clemenceau from entering Indian waters before February 13.

A supreme court environment panel was expected to deliver its final recommendations on whether the ship can be scrapped in India on Friday.

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