9 missing Vietnamese fishermen found adrift

Nine Vietnamese fishermen detained by China near disputed islands in September who were set free last week and then lost at sea have been located and taken to safety, the Vietnamese government said.

The detention of the Vietnamese sailors was the latest incident in a web of complex, long-running territorial disputes in the South China Sea and had threatened to become an irritant at an Asia-Pacific defence ministers meeting in Hanoi last week.

China freed the sailors on October 11 - exactly one month after they were detained and a day before the defence ministers were set to meet.

But they had not returned to port in central Vietnam within the expected period of time, sparking concern and leading Vietnam to ask for Chinese help in searching for the trawler.

The Vietnamese government website, www.chinhphu.vn, reported that the boat''s engine had died and the sailors used blankets as sails before a Chinese patrol vessel found them adrift and brought them to an island in the disputed Paracel archipelago - near where they had been fishing in the first place.

Bad weather would keep them on the island for a few more days, the website said in a report seen on Sunday.