Chained Protester Removed from Australian Port

Train movements resumed on Monday at Australia's Newcastle port, the world's largest coal export terminal, hours after a protester disrupted operations by chaining himself to tracks, the national rail network operator said on Monday.

Australian Rail Track Corp, a transport network coordinating train movements nationally, said the man had been removed, allowing rail operations to resume at around 0200 GMT.

The man had chained himself to the railway leading into the main Kooragang Island coal handling facility to halt trains feeding the coal port.

The action by Front Line Action on Coal was one of six the environmental group said it was holding to protest tree clearing in eastern Australia's Gunnedah coal basin by Whitehaven Coal Ltd.

A number of miners ship millions of tonnes of coal through the port, including Whitehaven, Glencore, BHP Billiton BLT.L> and Rio Tinto .

Front Line Action on Coal is calling for the government to halt work at Whitehaven's Maules Creek mine bordering the Leard State Forest and audit its governmental approval process.

A Whitehaven Coal spokesman denied claims by green activist group Leard Forest Alliance that protesters had closed six mines owned in the area by the company, including Maules Creek.