Hundreds of people were feared drowned and others battling for their lives in the Red Sea after an Egyptian ferry with some 1,400 on board sank in bad weather on an overnight crossing from Saudi Arabia.

Survivors in lifeboats were still awaiting rescue in heavy seas that were also complicating salvation efforts as night began to fall, maritime sources said. Dozens of bodies were recovered amid fears of a much higher death toll.

Some 16 hours afer the ship encountered difficulties, controversy started to emerge over the 36-year-old vessel's compliance with safety regulations and Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak demanded an immediate probe into the accident.

The lifeboats were seen in waters off the Egyptian port city of Safaga, some 600 kilometers (370 miles) southeast of Cairo, security sources said. A port authority official speaking on condtion of anonymity said around 100 people had been rescued so far.

Rescue efforts were being hampered by heavy seas, winds and strong currents. However officials said relatively warm weather would help the survival chances of those in lifeboats.

Maritime sources said around 1,300 passengers were on board, mostly Egyptians but also almost 100 Saudis, two Sudanese, one Canadian and an undetermined number of Syrians.

Among the passengers were Muslims returning from the annual hajj pilgrimage to Mecca and many Egyptians who work in Saudi Arabia, they said.

Transport Minister Mohammed Mansur told Egyptian public television that 104 crew members were onboard and added that coordination with Saudi rescuers was underway.

"The seas were very high and the weather was not good," he also told CNN. "The Egyptian navy, the Egyptian coast guard and army have sent four frigates to assist with the rescue operation."

A British search and rescue centre picked up a distress signal from the ship overnight.

"The rescue coordination centre at RAF Kinloss (in Scotland) picked up a distress beacon from the stricken vessel in the Red Sea at 2358 GMT," a spokeswoman from the defence ministry said.

With mystery still swirling over the cause of the accident, Mubarak swiftly cast doubt over the seaworthiness of the vessel

"President (Hosni) Mubarak wants an immediate probe into the causes of the accident of the Al-Salam 98 ferry and guarantees that other similar ships comply with safety regulations," his spokesman Suleiman Awad told public television.

"The speed at which the ship sank and the fact there were not enough life rafts on baord confirm that there was a (safety) problem but we cannot anticipate on the results of the investigation," he said.

Britain's Royal Navy diverted the HMS Bulwark warship in the Red Sea to offer help but the vessel would reportedly take one and a half days to reach the scene.

The Egyptian ship, called Al-Salam 98, had departed from the Saudi port of Duba and had been due to reach Safaga at 2:30 am local time (0030 GMT) after a crossing of up to 18 hours.

The boat was also reported to be carrying more than 40 vehicles.

Andrea Odone, from the operations department of the Al-Salam Maritime Transport company's Cairo headquarters told AFP that the ship complied with all safety rules.

"The ship is registered in Panama. It met all the safety requirements, and it fully complies with international safety rules... The number of passengers on board was less than the maximum number," he said.

The Panamian-flagged ship is 118 metres long (387 feet) and around 24 metres wide (78 feet).

Close to 500 people had perished when another Salam Express ferry boat sunk in the Red Sea in 1991 in the deadliest shipping accident in the Middle East in recent years. A probe found it was caused by a navigation error on the part of the captain.

Red Sea Governor Bakr al-Rashidi announced that an operations room had been set up in Safaga and a state of emergency was declared in the area's hospitals.

Relatives of the passengers were converging on Safaga to monitor the latest developments in the search and rescue operation.

According to French-based shipping expert Yvan Perchoc, the Al-Salam Baccaccio 98 is one of several old Italian ferries to which extra levels were added in order to boost passenger capacity, sometimes threefold.

"Among the ships operating crossings in the Red Sea... some are remarkable because of the height of their structures. They are old Italian ferries to which four extra decks have been added, raising the capacity from 500 to around 1,400," he told AFP.

"Despite the addition of extra bulges on the sides of these ships, one can wonder about their stability," he said, adding that the draft of such ships was generally very low.

A ship owned by the same Al-Salam company collided with a cargo ship near the entrance of the Suez canal in October, causing a stampede that left two dead and up to 100 wounded.

An inquiry into the accident blamed the captain for violating the rules governing transit through the Suez canal.

If the death toll continued to rise, the Red Sea accident could become one of the deadliest sea tragedies since more than 1,800 people died when a Senegalese ship sank in 2002.

PHOTO CAPTION

An undated recent picture shows the Al Salam Ferry 98 at Safaga port, on Egypt's Red Sea coast. (AFP)