Hanoi - Coastal border guards in central Vietnam on Monday fined a Chinese-crewed freighter from Hong Kong that they had seized last week for violating Vietnamese territorial waters.

Colonel Tran Minh Bay, head of Binh Thuan province's Border Guard Headquarters, said his office had fined the freighter 75 million dong (4,300 dollars) and the captain had admitted violating Vietnamese law and paid the fine.

Bay said that on Thursday, his officials had found the 13,000-ton cargo vessel, the Home Stais, with a crew of 18 Chinese nationals anchored four miles off the coast of Binh Thuan without permission from Vietnamese authorities.

Border guards temporarily seized the vessel to clarify the case.

The sailors at first said they were sailing toward Vietnam's coast to take shelter from a storm, but border guards found the ship had just unloaded a cargo of steel from Hong Kong at the port of Ho Chi Minh City. The guards determined the ship was waiting to take on goods from Vietnam and had intentionally berthed outside the restricted port area to evade paying port fees.

"We have dealt with this case very carefully because the freighter belongs to a company in Hong Kong, but all the crew members are Chinese mainland nationals," said Senior Lieutenant Ta Xuan Truong, who took part in seizing the vessel. "They have to leave Vietnam's territorial water before midnight next Monday."

Maritime territorial issues in the South China Sea have grown increasingly sensitive in recent months. Six countries claim sovereignty over some or all of the disputed Spratly and Paracel islands while China's claim to sovereignty over most of the South China Sea is not recognized by other countries. (dpa)