LILLE, France -- A Dutch-Belgian consortium said it had delayed until at least tomorrow evening a huge salvage operation in which experts will use a cutting cable to carve up the wreck of the car carrier ‘Tricolor’ which sank after a collision in the Channel in December.

With its cargo of nearly 3,000 BMWs, Saabs and Volvos, the Norwegian-registered vessel has lain on its side in 35 meters (100 feet) of water at a point equidistant from the French, British and Belgian coasts, causing a major hazard to freight at the heart of the world's biggest shipping lanes, AFP reported.

One of the biggest salvage operations ever mounted had initially been due to start last Thursday, but poor weather conditions prevented it. Cutting work was then supposed to start on Saturday.

"Today (Saturday) the weather is good, but we need a few days to put the equipment in place, anchor the platforms which were brought from the port of Zeebrugge (Belgium), and reconnect the cable," said Lars Walder, spokesman for Combinatie Berging Tricolor (CBT), the Dutch-Belgian consortium charged with removing the 190-metre ship.

However he said the operation could begin at the earliest late Sunday. Port authorities in the French city of Cherbourg said they expected it to start on Monday or Tuesday.

Some 200 engineers, divers and workmen will be on hand for the 40-million-dollar (35.6-million-euro) operation, which is based on techniques used to refloat the sunken Russian submarine Kursk in October 2001.

The same 58-millimeter cable used to remove the Kursk's nose section will be drawn by guide-wires through tunnels dug in the sand underneath the Tricolor. Attached to the two adjacent platforms, it will be drawn to and fro in a sawing motion to cut the ship into nine pieces.

These pieces -- weighing between 500 and 1,500 tons -- will be raised by the two cranes and placed on board the 140-metre "Giant" barges, one of which was also used in the Kursk operation. These will then ferry the wreckage to the Belgian port of Zeebrugge.

"All operations will be conducted with due care for the environment and safety of passing vessels in this important shipping lane. An anti-pollution vessel will be in the vicinity of the Tricolor throughout," CBT said in a statement on Friday.

The 13-deck Tricolor was bound for the British port of Southampton on December 14 when it was hit in French waters by the container ship Kariba, en route from Antwerp to Le Havre in France. The car carrier capsized and sunk within 30 minutes, with the 24 crew escaping unharmed.

Within two days the danger posed by the wreck was made apparent, when the German cargo vessel Nicola ran into it and had to be pulled off by tugs. In January the Turkish tanker Vicky, which was carrying 77,000 tons of diesel, struck it again.

Salvage experts succeeded in pumping off around 1,400 tons of fuel from the Tricolor, but that operation had to stop in January following an accident as a result of which some 540 tons leaked into the water, causing severe damage to local birdlife. Around 50 tons are believed to remain on board. Experts said the cut-and-lift operation was complicated by tidal currents, which have left the Tricolor partially buried in sand. The mission is expected to last at least three months, with the first section -- the stern end -- to be removed at the end of July.

A French naval vessel and two boats supplied by the Tricolor's owners Wilhelmsen Lines will patrol the area and radar beacons will also ward off ships.

The 2,862 luxury vehicles on board -- originally bound for affluent drivers across Britain -- will end as junk.

"We expect some of them to fall into the sea but we will pick them up. Back on land we will remove any environmentally damaging material and send them to scrap yards. They may be top of the range, but eight months in salt water will have rendered them totally unusable," said CBT spokesman Walder.