SYDNEY, Oct 8: An Australian warship picked up 187 asylum seekers from a sinking Indonesian boat intercepted about 1,500 kilometres off western Australia on Monday, Immigration Minister Philip Ruddock said.

The boat had initially been taken into tow by HMAS Adelaide after its crew disabled the vessel in a desperate ploy to force the Australian authorities to pick up the refugees.

“The boat has started sinking,” a spokesman for Ruddock said. “The people on board have been taken on board the Adelaide.”

There were no reports about any casualties.

“As far as we are aware everybody appears to have been picked up but we won’t have a report on that until sometime tomorrow morning,” he said.

But the spokesman would not say if the asylum seekers would be disembarked on Australia’s remote Indian Ocean territory of Christmas Island.

“Soon we’ll be making an announcement on what our next move will be.”

Earlier he had said the government would try to persuade Indonesia to take responsibility for the refugees.

However, Christmas Island harbour master Don O’Donnell said Australian Correctional Management staff had set up a camp at the island’s basketball court as if they were preparing for people to arrive.

The Adelaide fired shots across the bow of the Indonesian boat on Sunday in an attempt to force it to leave Australian waters.

Officials say refugees then threw children, wearing life jackets, off the boat to force the navy to rescue them.

A party from the Adelaide had been sent aboard to see if help was required but also to warn the captain and crew of stiff new penalties for anyone caught smuggling illegal immigrants into Australian territory.

In the past month Australia has refused entry to almost a thousand boat people since Prime Minister John Howard refused permission for a Norwegian container ship, the Tampa, to enter Australian waters after it saved more than 400 mostly Afghan asylum seekers from a sinking Indonesian boat.

The group has since been transferred to the South Pacific republic of Nauru aboard an Australian warship to have applications for refugee status assessed by United Nations officials.

In return, the tiny Pacific state is receiving 20 million dollars (10 million US) in aid.

Australia signalled its tough new stance against asylum seekers in September with the Border Protection Bill, which withdrew recognition of asylum claims lodged on remote territories off the country’s northwest coast.

Christmas Island lies 1,500 kilometres west of the Australian mainland and 350 kilometres south of Indonesia.

The navy has also since been empowered to tow vessels used by people smugglers operating from Indonesia back to sea.—AFP