Italian cruise firm Costa Crociere has been fined €1 million (£850,000) for the Concordia cruise ship sinking which killed 32 people.

Costa had asked for a plea bargain deal to respond to the administrative sanctions, which under Italian law are for companies whose employees commit crimes.

Judge Valeria Montesarchio accepted the plea after a hearing at the Tuscan tribunal yesterday.

Costa, a division of Miami-based Carnival, has sought to blame the disaster entirely on captain Francesco Schettino, who took the cruise ship off course and rammed it into a reef off the Tuscan island of Giglio on January 13, 2012.

Prosecutors are seeking indictments for Mr Schettino and five other people on charges including manslaughter. A preliminary hearing is scheduled for Monday but it is not clear if the judge will make a decision then on whether to order a trial.

Among the five are the helmsman, two other officials who were on the bridge and the Costa official on land who was managing the crisis.

Schettino is accused of manslaughter, causing a shipwreck and abandoning the vessel before all passengers were off.