Southampton's Queen Mary 2 is at the centre of a safety alert as the Cunard vessel prepares to leave the city for New York today.

Hundreds of extra smoke detectors are being fitted throughout the massive ship after it was discovered that panels in cabin bathrooms did not meet fire regulation standards.

As the 151,400-ton superliner came alongside the city's Eastern Docks, a team of engineers was waiting on the dockside to board the liner and begin the extensive operation of fitting the detectors in time for the ship to sail at 6pm.

Concerns about the panels, which are part of units surrounding washbasins in 900 bathrooms, were raised by the Southampton based United Kingdom Maritime and Coastguard Agency (MCA).

All cabins and adjacent corridors on QM2, which only entered service at the beginning of this year, are equipped with smoke detectors and sprinklers, but now further measures are being put in place.

As passengers began boarding for the passage to New York, work was under way to install a total of 1,315 smoke detectors throughout the liner's 13 public decks.

Peter Ratcliffe, executive director of Miami based Carnival Corporation, the parent company of Cunard, said: "The MCA has stressed that the material under consideration is in a normally low-risk area of the cabin.

"However, we are immediately taking further protective measures by installing additional smoke detectors during the ship's turnaround in Southampton today and increasing the ship's fire patrols.

"Furthermore, we will be extending the cabin sprinkler system into the bathrooms themselves and replacing the front panel of the bathroom vanity unit.''

Mr Ratcliffe.added: "We expect to be able to finish this work - which will cost less than half a million dollars - by the time the ship leaves for New York.

"We are not embarrassed by this. A company's reputation is based on how it deals with problems that can arise. It's business as usual."

The Maritime and Coastguard Agency confirmed the work was being done after tests had been carried out on the panels.

An MCA spokesman said: "It has to be stressed that the material is in a normally low-risk wet area of the cabin and that the vessel already has a highly efficient sprinkler system throughout its passenger accommodation.

"The MCA is satisfied that passenger safety is not compromised.''

Costing more than £500m, QM2 was constructed in the French shipyard of Chantiers de l'Atlantique in Saint Nazaire, Brittany, and was named by the Queen in a spectacular quayside ceremony in Southampton last January.