U.S. releases ship with Scuds

Yemeni foreign ministry officials yesterday said the shipment of North Korean-made Scud missiles seized by the U.S. Navy had been freed and was headed for Yemen.

The officials, speaking on condition of anonymity said the shipment was released after high-level contact between Yemen and the U.S. White House spokesman Ari Fleischer said the ship was released after Washington found there was no basis for holding it.

Earlier, the Yemeni government presented a protest letter to the U.S. and Spanish governments for the interception. The letter was handed over to Edmond Hull, the U.S. Ambassa-dor to Sanaa by Abu Bakr Al Querbi, Yemeni foreign minister.

The letter confirmed that the cargo comes in implementation of contracts previously concluded between Yemen and North Korea.

"The cargo belongs to the Yemeni government and its armed forces for defence purposes, and it will not reach a third party," the letter read.

The Saba agency said the memo given to Hull claimed the shipment was part of a long-standing deal with North Korea. A senior Yemeni official said that the Americans knew of the deal.

Saba news agency said the United States had assured Yemen that the shipment would be released as long as the Yemen-North Korea deal was concluded on legal basis.

"U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney told Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh that President George W. Bush ordered the shipment to be returned," Saba reported.

The Spanish navy stopped the seized ship on Monday off the Arabian peninsula and Defence Minister Federico Trillo said yesterday the unflagged vessel was carrying 15 Scud missiles hidden in a cargo of cement.

Trillo had said the ship, So San, was intercepted after the captain of the Spanish frigate Navarra ordered it to stop its engines. The Spanish ship fired warning shots when So San refused to stop and continued to steam on.

Spanish special forces boarded the vessel from a helicopter and took control of the ship without injuries, Trillo said.

The action came after intelligence officials watched the ship for weeks as part of an interdiction operation in the U.S.-led war on terrorism.

Forces from the amphibious assault ship USS Nassau had been aboard the detained vessel while awaiting orders on what to do with it and the crew allowed to take the ship on its way, they said.