The owners of the Norwegian freighter crammed with more than 400 asylum seekers off Australia said the vessel would not take them to New Zealand and Nauru under an Australian plan to solve the diplomatic crisis.
The owners say the vessel is not seaworthy since it is designed to sail with no more than 50 people aboard.
Earlier, the Australian Prime Minister, John Howard, announced a solution under which the 433 asylum seekers, mostly from Afghanistan, would go to New Zealand and the rest to Nauru where their claims for refugee status would be processed.
He said the plan was to transfer them at sea from the Tampa freighter to another non-Australian vessel and ruled out letting them land on Australian soil. But the Tampa's owners said the plan was vague.
Emphasising the Tampa was not designed to carry more than fifty persons, Hans Christian Bangsmoen, spokesman for Wallenius Wilhelmsen which owns the Tampa freighter now sitting off Christmas Island, said the only solution was to take the asylum-seekers onto Australian soil. He added that Australia had not made any request for the Tampa to sail to New Zealand or Nauru.
The Norwegian Foreign Ministry, which also wants Australia to let the refugees land as a first step towards ending the standoff, said Howard's plan seemed suited to solve only the questions of the refugees' destination and processing of claims for asylum.
"But as far as we can see the question of disembarkation is unresolved", spokeswoman Kathrine Biering said. She said Norway would await further details at a meeting at the U.N. refugee agency in Geneva starting later today.
New Zealand Prime Minister Helen Clark said she would work closely with Australia and the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees to arrange trans-shipment of the asylum seekers from the Tampa.
Under Howard's plan, those heading for New Zealand would land in Auckland at the Mangere refugee reception facility.