In a landmark decision, the judge said that some of the 101 plaintiffs in the case -- environmental groups, fishermen, local associations and hotel owners -- had the right to compensation for damages from the massive oil spill.

The court ordered Total along with the owner and the manager of the Erika tanker and the Italian RINA classification firm to pay damages totalling 192 million euros (284 million dollars) to the plaintiffs.

The Erika was carrying 30,000 tonnes of heavy fuel oil when it broke in two and sank off the Brittany coast on December 12, 1999, polluting a large stretch of coastline and killing tens of thousands of seabirds.

French beach resorts were deserted, fishing was halted and shellfish banned from consumption in the aftermath of the oil spill, leaving the local economy on its knees for years.

It was the first time that a court in France had handed down a conviction for damages to the environment, establishing the legal precedent for a company or person to be sued over a major ecological disaster.

The victims of the oil spill had collectively sought one billion euros in damages from Total and the 14 other parties in the case, but the judge ruled that some of the 101 claims were not admissible in court.

"This is a first in France, it's historic," said Allain Bougrain-Dubourg, president of the Bird Protection League, which was awarded 800,000 euros in damages.

Environmental group Friends of the Earth hailed the verdict as "the end of a kind of impunity." It was "extremely positive" that Total had been found guilty and ecological damage "recognized at last", it said.

Among the plaintiffs, the French state received the biggest share of compensation, totalling 154 million euros, and several local councils also won millions of euros in damages to cover the massive clean-up costs.

"This is a message for all those in the industry: you cannot charter junk tankers without impunity," said lawyer Corinne Lepage, representing several local associations in the trial.

The court also slapped a fine of 375,000 euros on Total, saying it had failed to take into account the age of the ship and deficiencies in its maintenance.

This carelessness had a "causal role in the sinking and as such provoked the accident," said Judge Jean-Baptiste Parlos.

He said Italian owner Giuseppe Savarese and manager Antonio Pollara must have known that repairs to the 25-year-old vessel had been skimped to cut costs and ordered them to pay the maximum fine of 75,000 euros.

The trial, on various charges of endangering lives, causing pollution or failing to respond to a disaster, opened in February last year after a seven-year investigation into the oil spill.

All 15 parties had insisted they were innocent.

The judge acquitted four employees from local maritime authorities who had faced charges of failing to respond to the disaster and the Indian captain Karun Mathur, who had been on trial in absentia.

Also acquitted were two subsidiaries of Total -- Total Petroleum Services and Total Transport Corporation -- as well as Gianpiero Ponasso, the director of the RINA classification firm, though the company was found at fault.

A lawyer for Total said he would advise the company to appeal the ruling, saying it was unfair, but company spokesman Yves-Marie Dalibard said Total would study the decision.

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