Captain 'disappointed' with Australia

Captain Rinnan has been a seafarer for 40 years

The captain of the Norwegian ship that picked up more than 400 asylum seekers trying to reach Australia has said he was dismayed at Australia's handling of the situation.

He said he was "surprised and disappointed" at Australia's refusal to take the asylum seekers, because it had been the Australian coastguard who had asked him to go to their rescue.

I only did my job - rescue people in distress

Captain Rinnan

The asylum seekers, mainly Afghans, had been trying to reach Australia in a ferry, but the ferry started sinking.

The Norwegian Tampa then became involved in an international standoff which lasted more than a week.

The Tampa's captain, Arne Rinnan, told reporters he was obeying the "unwritten law of the sea" by picking up the asylum seekers, and would do the same again if he found himself in a similar situation.

"I only did my job - rescue people in distress," he said.

Australia ordered the Tampa to stay away from the country's remote Christmas Island, but Captain Rinnan said he "had no option" but to defy the order.

"To save peoples' lives, I did it," he said.

The Tampa is now docked in Singapore, to where it had originally been heading. The 433 asylum seekers are on board the Australian navy troop carrier HMAS Manoora, which is heading for Papua New Guinea.

They are due to arrive at the weekend, from where Australia plans to fly 150 of them to New Zealand and 283 to the tiny South Pacific island of Nauru, while individual asylum claims are assessed.

Camp proposal

Meanwhile Australian Prime Minister John Howard has called for Indonesia to allow Australia to build a detention centre for illegal migrants in Indonesia as a way to cut down on the people smuggling trade.

Australian ministers are in Jakarta for talks

He was speaking as Foreign Minister Alexander Downer joined the Australian defence and immigration ministers in Jakarta for talks with their Indonesian counterparts.

Mr Howard said the camp could be used to hold immigrants while their applications for refugee status were processed.

"If people knew in advance they weren't going to be readily allowed out of Indonesia, or would be returned, they wouldn't go there in the first place," he said.

But Indonesia has turned down the proposal.

"We reject this, if they mean a holding centre," said Indonesia's Immigration Minister Hassan Wirayuda. "The government has already conveyed this to Howard when he visited President Megawati."

Mr Howard visited Megawati Sukarnoputri last month, the first foreign leader to do so since she took over the presidency in July.