AFP GIGLIO ISLAND RESCUE operations on the stricken Costa Concordia luxury liner were suspended due to choppy sea on Friday, one week after a Mediterranean tragedy in which up to 32 people are feared to have died.

Experts said the side of the ship was slipping off a rocky sea shelf at a rate of some 1.5 centimetres (about half an inch) every hour towards the open sea, which would sink the half-submerged 114,500- tonne vessel entirely.

A remote-controlled robot was set to be used on Friday to determine whether the submerged side of the ship can be attached to its resting place.

Emergency crews are also considering the possibility of attaching the massive 17-deck ship to the rocky coastline with giant cables to hold it back.

A meeting later on Friday “will probably make the decision on whether or not to call off the search,” an emergency official said. As the weather deteriorated, emergency crews attached rope ladders to the exposed side of the ship to ease access to the vessel, warning that approaching the ship on rubber dinghies was becoming increasingly dangerous.

Environmentalists and local residents of this pristine nature reserve and marine sanctuary are afraid there could be a spill from the ship’s tanks filled with 2,380 tonnes of heavy fuel oil and 200 tonnes of diesel.

Dutch company Smit Salvage is ready to pump out the fuel in what is known as a “hot-tapping” operation, but officials say the search on the ship would have to be suspended for them to do so as it could affect the vessel’s stability.

“We’re ready to begin the operation. We were ready yesterday but we’re still waiting for the green light from the authorities. Now we’re just fine-tuning the instruments,” Smit representative on the island Rene Robben said.

Eleven people have been confirmed dead in the tragedy including four French nationals, one Italian and one Spaniard among the passengers and two crew members — a Peruvian waiter and a Hungarian man who was a violinist on board.

Three of the bodies recovered have not yet been identified.

Relatives of the 21 people still missing have travelled to Giglio and towns on the Italian mainland like Orbetello and Porto Santo Stefano, clinging to the hope that their loved ones may somehow have survived the disaster.

The Italian cabinet was expected on Friday to adopt measures for stricter regulation of shipping routes, after reports that the Costa Concordia veered wildly off route in a show-off manoeuvre to file past the Tuscan island.