Sub victims 'to be compensated'

Twenty-six survived, nine are missing

US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld has suggested that America will provide compensation to the victims of last week's collision between an American submarine and a Japanese trawler.

The United States will do the proper thing when the facts are fully sorted out

Donald Rumsfeld

Nine people from the Ehime Maru are still missing after it sank after being struck by the USS Greeneville off the Hawaiian coast on Friday.

Japan has called on the US to raise the fishery school vessel in an attempt to recover their bodies.

Relatives of the missing - four 17-year-old students, two teachers and three crew members - have arrived in Hawaii from Uwajima in south-western Japan.

The Ehime Maru was on a three-month marine studies voyage

Mr Rumsfeld said: "The United States government has brought the families over, and it's been putting people up and taking care of the situation.

"And certainly it will do the proper thing when the facts are fully sorted out."

He added that "everything humanly possible" was being done to find those still missing.

His comments came as Secretary of State Colin Powell promised that the Bush administration would do everything it could to find out why the nuclear-powered submarine hit the Ehime Maru.

"We have apologised in every way we know how," he said. "We are doing everything we can to express regret and make sure this doesn't affect the very strong relationship we have with Japan."

The accident has come at a sensitive time in military relations between Washington and Tokyo, because of opposition to the big US military presence on the Japanese island of Okinawa by local people.

The US Navy says the submarine was practising an emergency surfacing drill when it struck the trawler.

Its commander, Scott Waddle, has been reassigned to other duties until an inquiry into the accident has been concluded.

The USS Greeneville is based at Pearl Harbor

The navy, coastguard and the US National Transportation Safety Board are investigating why the submarine did not notice the 180-foot trawler.

The Ehime Maru was on a three-month marine studies voyage and had sailed out of Honolulu harbour on the day of the accident.

In Japan, Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori's handling of the incident has been attacked by a political ally, who has berated him for reportedly continuing a game of golf with former college friends for two hours after hearing about the crisis.

New Komei Party leader Takenori Kanzaki said Mr Mori should have stopped playing immediately and returned to his office.