Coastguards were keeping a close watch today on up to 1,500 tonnes of timber shed by a Russian-registered cargo ship in the English Channel.

The 450ft ship Sinegorsk, now sheltering in Southampton docks, issued an alert in rough seas at 8.15am yesterday after it lost some of its load around 14 miles off the coast of Newhaven, East Sussex.

A spokeswoman for the Maritime and Coastguard Agency (MCA) said the wood, made up of sawn timber that had been stored in bundles on the vessel, had stayed together in one block and initially floated around 10 miles up the coast in an eastwards direction after being dropped.

The vessel, which had come from Oskarshamn, Sweden, and was bound for Alexandria, Egypt, was subsequently forced to anchor off Sandown on the Isle of Wight in the Solent, while the damage was assessed and the rest of its load secured.

It was listing 15 degrees to one side when it lost the wood in rough seas, but this was reduced to between five and 10 degrees after members of the 25-strong crew took ballast water into its starboard side to even it out.

By late last night, the ship had been escorted into Southampton Dock by a pilot vessel.

Throughout the night, coastguard tug Anglian Earl remained near the scene to monitor the wood's movement and warn other ships to keep their distance.

A Dover Coastguard spokesman said a pollution aircraft was due to fly out early today to monitor the drift rate and check if the timber had split up or stayed in one body.

The MCA said it looked as though the timber might be washed up on the coast at Dungeness in Kent late tomorrow or on Thursday morning in the Dymchurch area, but its course depended on the weather.

It said the Receiver of Wreck had been kept informed of the current situation in case the timber came ashore.

An MCA spokeswoman said the agency would continue to assess tidal patterns and the weather to monitor where the wood floated.

She added that it was expected to continue on course towards Dungeness but could bypass the British coastline altogether.

Yesterday a meeting was held in Brighton for local authorities, police and the Environment Agency to discuss what to do if the wood is washed ashore.

A spokesman for Transmanche Ferries, which operates ferry services from Newhaven to Dieppe, said its vessels were operating normally and that it was not expected the incident would affect future services.

But the spokeswoman said the timber could potentially pose a threat to small vessels in the vicinity if they were to crash into it.

Fred Caygill of the MCA warned that if the wood did come ashore there could be a ''similar'' situation to January last year when the Greek-registered Ice Prince sank around 26 miles south of Dorset.

Then, 2,000 tonnes of sawn timber floated up the coast to Sussex, resulting in the closure of beaches from Ferring in the west of the county to Brighton in the east.

A year earlier hundreds of people gathered to help themselves to containers which washed ashore following the grounding of the cargo ship MSC Napoli off the coast of Sidmouth, Devon.