Madrid - A Spanish cruise ship with swine flu patients on board has left the Venezuelan Caribbean island of Margarita, the company owning the ship said Thursday.

Pullmantur said MS Ocean Dream had set off for Aruba in the Lesser Antilles after the 376 Venezuelans among its 759 passengers had disembarked.

The ship had been barred from entering Grenada and Barbados after three of the 400 crew members were diagnosed with the new type of influenza A(H1N1), known as swine flu.

Eleven other crew members were also exhibiting possible symptoms of the disease. None of the passengers were reported affected.

The ship, which was on a nine-day cruise, docked in Margarita on Wednesday.

A Venezuelan police vessel guarded the ship, where passengers complained that they felt "kidnapped," the Venezuelan daily El Universal reported.

Jorge Alchaer, the health minister of Venezuela's islands region, said initially that passengers and crew would remain on board in Margarita for 10 days.

Pullmantur, however, denied that the ship had been put in quarantine.

The company said the flu patients only had slight symptoms.

Spanish Health Minister Trinidad Jimenez described measures preventing passengers from disembarking as unnecessary, because the A(H1N1) flu epidemic was global.

Jimenez said such measures were not recommended by the World Health Organization (WHO), though every country was free to take its own decisions.

The ship was expected to arrive Friday in Aruba, from where it set sail, according to media reports. (dpa)