The environment ministry said documents provided by Paris proved the asbestos-insulated Clemenceau did not fall under the 1989 Basel convention banning the export of toxic waste.

"Following the agreement by the French government to export the Clemenceau in its current state and India's agreement to take it for dismantling, the French aircraft carrier does not pose an environmental threat to Egypt," the ministry statement said in a statement carried by the state news agency MENA.

The agency said experts from the environment ministry and Suez canal authority were due to inspect the ship on Monday.

The Clemenceau -- a former pride of the French navy -- left the French Mediterranean port of Toulon on December 31 but had been anchored some 15 nautical miles off the coast of Egypt since Thursday, pending a green light from the Egyptian authorities.

Two protestors from the environmental watchdog Greenpeace had boarded the 40-year-old ship off the coast of Egypt on Thursday, claiming the Clemenceau's asbestos insulation posed a health and environmental threat.

"The documents received by the French embassy in Cairo assert that the Clemenceau is still a state-owned warship, which means that it does not legally contradict the Basel convention," the environment ministry said.

The Egyptian authorities had previously claimed that the Basel convention applied to the ship, causing a standoff that briefly threatened to strain relations.

French defence ministry spokesman Jean-Francois Bureau confirmed the deadlock had been broken and said the Clemenceau's compliance with the Basel convention "no longer seemed to be an issue".

"We are now looking at technical aspects and sharing practical information on the conditions of the transit" through Suez, he told AFP.

Port authorities told AFP the Clemenceau had finally entered Egypt's territorial waters and was approaching Port Said on Sunday.

"It's a purely political decision. It is scandalous that France managed to pressure Egypt," Greenpeace spokesman Martin Besieux, whose organisation has called for the disarmed vessel to be decontaminated, told AFP.

Greenpeace has been fighting to block the ship's transfer for months, arguing that Indian shipyard workers will be at risk of asbestos poisoning.

According to the French government, the vessel is carrying 45 tonnes of asbestos insulation. According to the firm that helped partially decontaminate it before the trip, the amount is between 500 and 1,000 tonnes.

The Clemenceau still faces a major obstacle before it reaches its final destination in Gujarat, western India.

The Indian supreme court is expected over the coming days to examine the case, after a court commission recommended against accepting the ship on its shores.

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