The shipwrecked Costa Concordia will be removed from its watery graveyard off Tuscany in June and taken to a port to be dismantled, the final phase of an unprecedented 600 million-euro (£500m) salvage effort.

Officials in Rome gave the timetable and the rundown of what was needed for the cruise liner to be refloated just days before the second anniversary of the January 13, 2012, grounding that killed 32 people.

A handful of Italian ports - including Piombino, Genoa, Palermo and Civitavecchia - are bidding to take in the wreck, but there are also international bidders in France, Turkey, Britain and even China.

Italy's environment minister and the head of Costa Crociere say the preference was to keep the project in Italy.

Costa, is a part of Carnival, which has its UK headquarters in Southampton.