But he is praying they don't get hit by a hurricane during their current operation. The crew of the guided missile destroyer mobilised on board and onshore yesterday to organise the evacuation of up to 3,000 Montserratians who wish to leave the island, probably beginning either today or tomorrow. Barring hurricanes or strong tropical storms - the hurricane season is about to reach its peak - they hope to oversee the evacuation of 400-500 people a day to neighbouring Antigua and complete the operation by the end of August.The Liverpool lowered its "scrambling net" - a rope webbing for emergency boarding - and its "accommodation ladder", or vertical gangplank, yesterday for use in the event of a major volcanic eruption on the British Caribbean colony.But the captain was confident the warship itself would not be needed to evacuate Montserratians. "Some people are taking up the offer of voluntary evacuation, not in great numbers but in an orderly fashion. There's no emergency."Montserrat officials said the Foreign Office was wrong.

Eugene Skerritt, permanent secretary to the chief minister, said: "The evacuation has not started and the false reports are causing us a lot of trouble. People believe we are hiding something from them."There is also mounting anger on the islands neighbouring Montserrat, which have taken in those who have fled the wrath of the volcano. Antigua now hosts 4,000 Montserratians - as many as remain in Montserrat itself. "Those people who want to leave are leaving," a Foreign Office spokesman said.

But the issue is currently being handled by three departments - the Foreign Office, the Department for International Development and the Home Office - and there are signs of weak co-ordination.There were also clashes between local officials and the Foreign Office over whether an evacuation was under way. We have to compare it with what British people get when they have a disaster." She added: "Some kind of crazy figures have been thrown around," but said much higher payments had "never been on the cards".Britain has already waived work permit regulations for Montserratians arriving in Britain, and allowed them to claim social security. This is a temporary concession and 1400 have already taken up the offer.Defending itself against critics, the Foreign Office said yesterday that "there may be a breakdown in communication between the government in Montserrat and its own citizens". Those who left earlier can apply for help under another scheme yet to be announced.In a live broadcast to Radio ZJB Montserrat, Ms Short warned islanders that "money did not grow on trees"."We have to account to our Parliament for the way we spend our money. "I understand that people are disgruntled but we have acted very quickly and reasonably," said Clare Short, Secretary of State for International Development. "We provided funds for people who want to travel to Britain, we're now announcing a package for people who want to relocate in the Caribbean," she told the BBC.Adults moving to other countries in the Caribbean would get pounds 2,400 over the next six months, provided they did not have savings and assets worth more than pounds 10,000 pounds Those under 18 would get pounds 600 Britain would also pay air fares to nearby countries. But that is a long way short of the recommendations made by local officials.The package is pegged to average earnings on Montserrat and is for those living on the island on August 16, when scientists said the volcano was becoming much more dangerous.

Within two days, the amount of meat recalled was increased to more than 1m tons, a record for any recall of meat in the US.The fact that the outbreak in Colorado was so limited is attributed by agriculture department officials to the effectiveness of precautions currently in force and Mr Glickman yesterday described US food as "the safest in the world". Other scientists familiar with the US food industry, however, say it is miraculous that it was not worse.. Britain announced details of an assistance package for the inhabitants of Montserrat yesterday, but it fell far short of what the volcano-stricken island's authorities had recommended. The country's Chief Minister Bertrand Osborne immediately called the aid package "totally unacceptable".

The delays and confusion in arranging help for the beleaguered inhabitants have led to anti-British demonstrations on the normally placid island against the Governor, Frank Savage, and sparked claim and counter-claim from Whitehall and Montserrat. The Government moved quickly to try to defuse the row, defending itself against claims of inactivity and hesitation. Its owner, Hudson Foods Inc, is one of the biggest producers in the US and supplies the Burger King and Boston Market fast- food chains, as well as supermarkets. The announcement was made yesterday afternoon by the US agriculture secretary, Dan Glickman. "Hudson will recall all product that originated at the Columbus, Nebraska plant, destroy all product it has on hand at that plant and immediately cease operations there until they have adopted far more stringent safety standards that we have specifically laid out for them," he said.A team of Department of Agriculture inspectors had been working at the plant around the clock for three days in an attempt to establish the cause of the outbreak.Mr Glickman said the inspectors had found that unused meat from one day was habitually held over for use in the next day's processing. It was therefore impossible to guarantee that the initial contamination had not found its way into further batches.A week ago, Hudson recalled 40,000 tons of hamburgers after 17 cases of E-coli poisoning were reported in Colorado. A recent outbreak of E.coli food poisoning - similar to the one that killed 20 people in Scotland last year - was traced to frozen hamburgers originating at the plant.