Ottawa - Two ships carrying hundreds of passengers are stuck in the ice in the Saint Lawrence Seaway off Matane in eastern Canada, news reports said.

Ice breakers failed on Monday to clear a path for the two stricken ships, the CTMA Vacancier ferry with 300 people on board, and the Georges-Alexandre-Lebel, a cargo ship owned by Canada's COGEMA shipping company.

COGEMA general director Andre Landry told the French-language newspaper Le Soleil that ice of that thickness has not been observed in the seaway that early in the year for many years.

"That is usually expected in February and March," Landry said.

Initial attempts to help the ship by the ice breaker Terry Fox failed.

A 5-square-kilometre-large ice blanket has been blocking access to the port at Matane since the weekend, Le Soleil wrote.

The Saint Lawrence Seaway connected North America's Great Lakes with the Atlantic. (dpa)