Costa Concordia salvage to begin

Rescuers have been through almost all of the ship that remains above the water line and experts believe there is little risk of a major fuel leak.

Eleven bodies have been recovered so far and 24 people are missing.

The captain of the Italian ship, Francesco Schettino is under house arrest, accused of causing the crash.

Along with the salvage workers - who will begin operations once rescue efforts have been declared over - a specialist team from Dutch salvage company SMIT is to start drilling through the ship towards the 17 tanks that hold more than 2,000 tonnes of fuel.

The announcement that Capt Schettino would be held under house arrest instead of in jail came as prosecutors accused him of causing the crash and also of fleeing the Costa Concordia while passengers were still stranded.

A recording of a call between him and a port official after the crash appears to support this, though Capt Schettino denies the claims.

In the recording, released by the Corriere della Sera newspaper, Livorno Port Authority chief Gregorio de Falco can be heard repeatedly telling the captain to get back on board the ship to help the stranded passengers.

The captain appears to refuse, replying first that there are rescuers already on board, and then that it is dark and difficult to see.

The ship, carrying 4,200 passengers and crew, had its hull ripped open when it hit rocks late on Friday, just hours after leaving the port of Civitavecchia for a week-long Mediterranean cruise.

Some people were forced to swim for shore as the angle of the ship made launching lifeboats impossible.

Lloyd's List, a shipping journal, told the BBC that the vessel passed closer to the island if Giglio on a previous occasion within 230m of the island on 14 August 2011 to mark La Notte di San Lorenzo - the night of the shooting stars festival on the island.

The route deviation on that occasion had apparently been authorised by Costa Cruises - the company which owns the vessel.

Lloyd's List describes that occasion as a "near miss" and says the ship's route would have been less than 200m away from the point of collision on Friday's voyage.

Costa Cruises said on Monday that the route deviation last Friday had been "unauthorised, unapproved and unknown to Costa".

But Richard Meade, the Editor of Lloyd's List, said: "The company's account of what happened, of the rogue master [Capt Schettino] taking a bad decision, isn't quite as black and white as they presented originally."

"This ship took a very similar route only a few months previously and the master would have known that."

Costa Cruises says it is looking into the claims, but stands by the statement it gave on Monday.