Spain demands Mauritania take stricken migrant ship

MADRID, Feb 7 (Reuters) Spain stepped up pressure on Mauritania to take in a ship carrying around 200, mainly Pakistani, migrants after it broke down trying to reach Europe.

Mauritania refused the ship landing rights on Monday but Spain says the African country, under international law, must rescue the migrants as it has the nearest port.

''As shipwrecked people, they must be landed in Mauritania and repatriated from Mauritania,'' a Spanish Foreign Ministry spokesman said yesterday. ''We want to find a solution based on law.'' The Pakistanis are the latest group of Europe-bound migrants left stranded at sea as countries haggle over who should take them.

A Spanish coastguard tug on Sunday pulled their vessel to its current position off Mauritania's northern fishing port of Nouadhibou after its motor packed up.

Mauritania says it is not responsible for the illegal migrants, who are thought to have set out from Guinea, hundreds of miles to the south, on their way to Spain's Canary Islands.

The migrants face no medical or humanitarian emergencies and are being given food and water by the Spanish tug moored alongside them, Spain's Foreign Ministry said.

A Spanish hospital ship is set to re-supply them with provisions, Spain's coastguard said.

Over 31,000 mainly African illegal immigrants arrived by boat in the Canaries during 2006, more than six times as many as the previous year, as they fled poverty at home.

Spanish authorities say around 6,000 migrants died on the way due to shipwrecks and hunger.

Illegal immigration is a leading worry for Spaniards, polls show, and Spain's socialist government has stepped up diplomatic and aid ties with West Africa to try and stem the human tide.

Spain and the European Union have also intensified patrols off African coastal waters.

Reuters SRS VP0430