NUEVA VALENCIA, Philippines (AFP) - The Philippines has said that a massive oil spill could get much worse without urgent help to lift a stricken tanker, still loaded with fuel, off the ocean floor.

The spill, which has already devastated nature sites and covered miles of coastline in black sludge, has been caused by only a fraction of the oil on the doomed Solar I seeping out of the ship's hold, officials said.

Dead fish, crabs and other marine organisms were starting to wash up on the blackened shores of this central Philippine town that suffered some of the worst contamination.

President Gloria Arroyo ordered her government "to seek all the necessary assistance, domestic or international, to contain and remove the threat."

In a statement she also ordered relief aid into the affected communities around the central Philippine island of Guimaras.

"It's easier to combat the oil when it's still in the water," coastguard chief Vice Admiral Arturo Gosingan said. Cleaning up the coast would be a huge and lengthy manual operation, he added.

The ship sank in the Panay Gulf off Guimaras island on Friday, leaving two of the 20 crew missing. Coastguard spokesman Lieutenant-Commander Joseph Coyme said survivors indicated that only one of the ship's 10 containers had ruptured, emptying more than 50,000 gallons of oil into the sea.

Around 450,000 gallons are still on board, and there were fears the seawater and pressure could burst the tanks, dramatically worsening what is already acknowledged as the worst oil spill in the country's history.

"We cannot just sit and wait," said Coyme. He said the spill could not be cleaned up for the moment and called raising the vessel the "foremost priority."

The government has asked Indonesia and Japan to spend specialist teams to contain the oil spill, but Coyme said the ship would have to be refloated before the clean-up begins, adding that the United States had been asked for urgent assistance.

A spokeswoman for the US embassy in Manila told AFP: "We are informally talking with the Philippine government about the spill." But she gave no further details.

The tanker is resting in some 3,000 feet (900 metres) of water. Philippine salvage teams only have the capability to dive to around 120 feet.

Coyme said there had been no formal offer of help so far from Tokyo or Jakarta.

Gosingan, speaking on local television, said the ship's owners were consulting with British experts "to see what they can do."

He said robotic equipment would probably be needed just to reach the bottom and rig a hose to suck the oil out of the remaining nine containers in the hold.

While the oil slick could not be cleaned up for the moment, coastguard vessels as well as tugboats deployed by the ship's owners were trying to contain it with giant booms and chemical dispersants, Coyme said. The slick now stretches across 13 nautical miles of water.

Coyme said the black sludge had already reached Negros, the country's fourth largest island, and contaminated the beaches of Bago city and two adjacent towns.

Guimaras officials have said the environmental disaster has affected more than 200 kilometers (125 miles) of coastline, damaging mangrove swamps, seaweed plantations and coral reefs containing popular dive sites.

The coastguard has ordered Petron Corp., which chartered the tanker, to pay for the cost of the cleanup, which environmental groups said could run into million of dollars and take at least a year.

Civil defense office deputy chief Anthony Golez meanwhile warned the public against the possible danger posed by the slick.

Bathing, swimming, washing clothes or wading in the affected bodies of water are discouraged, while fish and shellfish harvested from these areas should not be sold or eaten, he said in a statement.

Philippines warns oil spill could get worse

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