Another boatload of suspected asylum seekers has been intercepted off the north coast of Australia.
It is understood authorities rushed to the boat this morning after a RAAF surveillance aircraft spotted the vessel off the Northern Territory.
When a naval patrol boat arrived on the scene it was discovered the boat was in distress and floundering, and those onboard were transferred to the Australian ship.
The vessel is thought to have been carrying 30 passengers, plus an unknown number of crew.
The boat is the second in as many days to be intercepted in Australian waters and is the 59th to be intercepted this year.
A vessel carrying 11 passengers was intercepted off Ashmore Island late yesterday.
The new arrival will place more pressure on the detention camps on Christmas Island, which are near to capacity.
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UP to 20 Sri Lankan asylum-seekers were last night preparing to leave the Oceanic Viking as early as tomorrow, in the first signs of an end to the standoff that began almost four weeks ago.
While Australian authorities remained hopeful of persuading all 78 of the Tamils to leave the Customs ship tomorrow, when the Oceanic Viking's permission to remain in Indonesian waters ends, there were reports last night that up to 20 of them would submit to health and identity checks today before being taken ashore to the Tanjung Pinang detention centre.
Indonesian Foreign Ministry official Sujatmiko said tonight that, by today, "hopefully some of them are ready to be verified".
The break in the impasse came as Kevin Rudd insisted no protests or threats by protesters would divert him from his policy on border security, even as Australian authorities confirmed they had offered to give the 78 Sri Lankans preferential treatment if they left the Oceanic Viking.
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Speaking in New Delhi, Mr Rudd said he had not been briefed on the offer to the asylum-seekers but expected "normal resettlement processes consistent with the UNHCR" would apply.
A written offer guaranteeing resettlement was presented to the 78 boatpeople earlier this week.
Published under Department of Immigration letterhead and signed by Australian diplomat Jim O'Callaghan, it promised those already declared refugees would be resettled within four to six weeks.
Those whose claims were subsequently successful would be resettled within 12 weeks.
The letter does not promise a particular country but sources close to the negotiations said the bulk - if not all - would end up in Australia.
Immigration Minister Chris Evans acknowledged Australia would take a "sizeable amount of the load".
He denied that the offer - which would see declared refugees processed well within the 90 days that those on Christmas Island must wait - amounted to special treatment.
But he did acknowledge that other refugees detained in Indonesia often had to wait much longer for resettlement.