An RCMP spokesman said the police had been trying for months to obtain a response from the Indian government on whether it would pay for shipping the wreckage back to the country.

"The wreckage belongs to the Indian government, which owns the airline," RCMP spokesman Anthony Choy told the South Asian Observer here in an interview.

"It's up to them what they will do with it. We're waiting to hear from them," he said. If India did not want the wreckage, one of the options would be "to burn it", he added.

Before doing away with the debris, the RCMP will consult Crown prosecutors and members of the victim's families. "There has been no decision yet on where the items are going to move to."

The Air-India flight from Canada to India via Britain was blown off the Irish coast on June 23, 1985. All 307 passengers and 22 crew members were killed.

The plane was partially reconstructed for the terrorism trial in Vancouver that ended in March with the acquittal of the two main accused in the case, Ripudaman Singh Malik and Ajaib Singh Bagri.

The RCMP moved quickly to dismantle the wreckage after the court proceedings ended. Fragments of fuselage, baggage containers, passenger seats and food trays plucked from the Atlantic Ocean now sit in crates in a Vancouver warehouse.

Susheel Gupta, a spokesman for the Air-India Victims Families Association, said the relatives expect to have discussions about the wreckage with former Ontario premier Bob Rae before any final decision is made.