The local court in Seosan also sentenced two crew members to prison for up to three years for violating pollution laws, court official Yoon Young Yoon said. The fine and prison sentences were the maximum allowed under the law.

The two had piloted two tugboats pulling a Samsung-operated crane-carrying barge that slammed into the Hong Kong-registered tanker Hebei Spirit last Dec 7. The collision caused the tanker to release nearly 80,000 barrels of oil into South Korea's coastal waters.

'The defendants neglected their duty while towing a huge crane in the sea, resulting in the worst accident,' Judge Ro Jong Chan said in his ruling at the court in Seosan, near the affected area.

Samsung Heavy Industries was fined 30 million won, but the barge captain was found not guilty. Also cleared were the tanker's captain and chief officer - both Indian nationals - and Hebei Shipping, a Hong Kong corporation that owns the Hebei Spirit.

The five individual defendants had been charged with negligence and violating anti-pollution laws.

During the hearings, the tanker company's lawyers had accused Samsung of ignoring safety rules and using old cables.

Samsung's lawyers had said that the safety of the cables had been confirmed fully by South Korean investigators. They had accused the tanker's crew of responding too late to warnings of a collision.

The spill destroyed the livelihoods of 40,000 households and polluted 300km of shoreline, 101 islands, 15 beaches and 35,000ha of fish farms, according to figures given by the South Korean authorities to the International Oil Pollution Compensation Fund.

Angry residents have protested against delays by local officials in distributing compensation from the central government.

The Yonhap news agency predicted that the decision would pave the way for residents to sue Samsung Heavy Industries for compensation.

ASSOCIATED PRESS, AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE