The Australian navy has intercepted a boat carrying about 200 asylum seekers off the country's northwest coast, Prime Minister Mr John Howard told reporters today.
Mr Howard said the boat was intercepted in international waters last night and the people transferred on to the troop carrier HMAS Manoora, already carrying 433 asylum seekers which Australia has refused to accept.
"At no stage did this latest vessel reach Australian territorial waters. It did enter the contiguous zone, but it did not enter the territorial waters and as a result questions of application for asylum status do not arise," he said.
He told reporters the vessel was heading toward Australia's Ashmore Reef and was boarded after warnings for it to turn around.
The 433 asylum seekers already on the Manoora were the centre of a diplomatic standoff between Australia, Indonesia and Norway when they were rescued from a sinking Indonesian ferry.
They are due to arrive in Papua New Guinea early next week under Howard's plan to resettle the boat people in other regional countries.
The fate of the latest boat people picked up was not immediately clear.