LONDON, Feb 3 (AFP) - A salvage team was due Sunday to try to refloat a stricken cargo ship which ran aground in heavy seas off southwest England, as the severe weather that has battered the country eased off. A Maritime and Coastguard Agency spokeswoman said the experts wanted to wait until low tide to assess the situation on the Maltese-registered Kodima, adding that it was not yet in any danger of breaking up.

The vessel is carrying 450 tonnes of fuel oil, 55 tonnes of marine diesel and 10 tonnes of lubricating oil. Marine diesel was leaking from the flooded engine room, while two hatch covers have been lost and their holds are also flooded. The spokeswoman said there were two options open to the experts -- "either they decide to tow the ship off the beach with the oil still onboard or they fix the leak first."

She added: "Nothing will be decided until the salvage team have been aboard to see what the damage is." Much of the Kodima's cargo of wood had already been lost overboard when it ran aground early Saturday off Whitsand Bay, Cornwall. Its Russian crew of 16 were airlifted to safety by a Royal Navy helicopter.

Meanwhile a Norwegian fishing vessel with 11 crew was Sunday being towed to safety after it lost power off the coast of Scotland. The Viknafisk sought assistance in the early hours after developing engine problems in choppy seas off the Shetland Islands.

The toll of dead or missing in Britain from the week's storms rose to 12 Saturday when the captain of a French trawler was swept overboard. Jannick Joeg was swept away despite the rescue of 18 fishermen onboard Le Perrain, which was sinking 250 miles (400 kilometres) off the Outer Hebrides. A search for a man washed into the sea off a pier at Brighton, southern England, was called off amid fears he had drowned in heavy seas. He had been spotted clinging to girders underneath the structure. However, the number of flood warnings has been reduced as the wind and rain eased off.

In a separate incident blamed on the weather, Dublin airport was closed for almost an hour Sunday when a Delta airlines MD11 aircraft veered off the runway when landing in high winds after a flight from Atlanta. A spokeswoman for Aer Rianta, the Irish airports authority, said there were 219 passengers and 14 crew on board but no one was injured.