The merchant ship Arctic Sea, missing for more than a week, is in international waters in the Atlantic off West Africa, Portugal's Lusa news agency and a French naval spokesman said today.
Quoting the director-general of defence of Cape Verde, Pedro Reis, Lusa said the ship was north of Cape Verde.
"The ship is located at a distance of 400 nautical miles north of Sao Vicente, outside Cape Verde's exclusive economic zone," Reis was quoted as saying. Lusa gave no further details.
Sao Vicente is one of the Cape Verde islands.
The disappearance of the ship baffled authorities in Europe and North Africa and Moscow sent Russian warships to find it. If it was north of Cape Verde, this would corroborate earlier reports that it was heading into the Atlantic.
Major Antonio Monteiro of Cape Verde's coastguard told Reuters he could not confirm that the vessel had passed north of Cape Verde.
A French naval spokesman told Reuters French intelligence had information suggesting a ship matching the description of the Arctic Sea was located north of Cape Verde. The information had been passed to Russia and Malta.
"Earlier today, French intelligence found that there was a ship in the south Atlantic, at the level (latitude) of Brazil, that could match the description of the Arctic Sea," captain Jerome Baroe told Reuters in Paris.
In a separate report, Lusa quoted an unidentified source in Cape Verde as sayaing authorities on the island "are in contact with agencies and international organizations that are permanently giving information about the movements of the ship".
Earlier today, the European Commission expressed doubt that the ship had fallen prey to pirates as its operator had suggested.
The Maltese-registered vessel, carrying a $1.3-million cargo of timber and a Russian crew, was to have docked on August 4th in the Algerian port of Bejaia. It never arrived and was believed to have last made contact from a position off the French coast.
Concerns about the safety of the 15-member crew were raised after the Malta Maritime Authority said it received reports the ship had been boarded by men in masks posing as anti-drugs police in Swedish waters on July 24th.
Reuters