JERUSALEM: Israeli warships warily shadowed a Libyan aid ship on Tuesday even as officials said the vessel was diverting its course from Gaza and heading for a nearby Egyptian port.

The standoff comes amid high tensions just six weeks after Israeli commandos launched a pre-dawn operation to prevent a flotilla of aid ships from breaching the blockade, leaving nine people dead.

The executive director of the Kadhafi Foundation, which chartered the vessel, told AFP late Tuesday Israeli warships were "threatening" the aid ship.

"Israeli warships are surrounding and threatening the cargo ship. There is a real threat," Yussef Sawan said.

Sawan earlier said the ship, the Amalthea, was still headed for Gaza, denying a statement by an Egyptian security official that it was expected to arrive in the Egyptian border port of El-Arish on Wednesday.

"The ship is still headed for Gaza and will not change course," Sawan told AFP.

Communications with the ship are being jammed, he added.

The charity is run by Seif al-Islam, son of Libyan leader Moamer Kadhafi.

After the Israeli navy established contact with the ship, which had been intent on breaching Israel`s naval blockade of Gaza, its Cuban captain announced he would sail to El-Arish, an Israeli official told AFP.

Public radio broadcast snippets of radio conversation in Spanish, which it said was between the captain of the Amalthea, and the navy on the new course he was charting.

However, Israeli warships continued to closely monitor the ship, fearing the move was a ruse, the official said.

"The Libyan aid ship will arrive tomorrow (Wednesday) morning at the port of El-Arish.... It has received authorisation from Egyptian authorities to unload its cargo," an Egyptian security official told AFP.

Close to midnight, public radio, which has been monitoring transmissions between the ship and the navy, reported that the vessel had anchored at sea with engine trouble.

"I tell you my main engine is out of order, we are all working to repair it," a person on board, apparently the captain, said in a crackly transmission broadcast by the radio.

Earlier Tuesday, a Libyan activist on board said they had been given an ultimatum to change course by 2100 GMT.

"Otherwise they are threatening to intercept the boat with their navy," Mashallah Zwei, a member of the Kadhafi Foundation, told AFP by satellite phone.

An Israeli military spokesman denied an ultimatum had been given, but instead "a clarification about what they already knew, that they could not go to Gaza.

"The navy has begun preparations for stopping the ship, should it attempt to violate the naval blockade," he told AFP.

The last time Israel tried to stop a ship the resulting skirmishes left nine Turks, including a dual US national, dead while dozens of other people were injured, including nine Israeli commandos.

Zwei said the navy had "threatened to send their warships to intercept the boat and escort it toward the (southern Israeli) port of Ashdod if we do not change course.

"We explained to the Israeli authorities that our original destination was Gaza and that we are not here for a provocation," he said.

"We also specified that we are transporting only foodstuffs and medicines and we asked them to let us discharge our cargo in Gaza."

The 92-metre (302-foot) freighter left Greece on Saturday and was expected to arrive off Gaza`s territorial waters on Wednesday, said the charity.

The latest developments came a day after Israel`s military published the results of an internal inquiry into the May 31 raid, which found that while mistakes had been made, the troops` use of live fire was "justified".

The report also made a point of saying no country in the world had ever managed "to stop a vessel at sea in a non-hostile manner".

Over the past week, Israel has made a flurry of diplomatic efforts to try to convince the organisers to change course and deliver the Amalthea`s cargo of 2,000 tonnes of foodstuffs and medicine to El-Arish, about 50 kilometres (30 miles) from Gaza.

As well as diplomatic channels, pressure had been exerted upon the Amalthea`s owner and its captain to change course, the Kadhafi Foundation said.

"Pressures are escalating at various levels on the owner of the vessel and its captain to force the ship to change its course and not to go to Gaza port," the foundation`s website said.

Global pressure over the May 31 debacle forced Israel to significantly change its policy on Gaza, and now it prevents only the import of arms and goods it says could be used to build weapons or fortifications.


BDST:0915 HRS, July 14, 2010