Sydney - An Indonesian fishing boat carrying 32 male asylum seekers was intercepted Wednesday off Australia's west coast.

It was the seventh boat to arrive so far this year, the same number of boats that arrived in the whole of 2008.

The men were taken aboard HMAS Wollongong and are being transported to Australia's Indian Ocean territory of Christmas Island for processing.

Last week there was an explosion aboard an Indonesian fishing vessel carrying mostly Afghan asylum seekers off Australia's west coast. Five died and dozens were injured when the wooden boat went up in flames while being escorted to Christmas Island by a navy vessel.

There are reports that those on board the boat doused it with petrol to intimidate the Australian Navy into taking them aboard the escort vessel.

Fourteen boats have arrived since the government of Prime Minister Kevin Rudd softened Canberra's treatment of illegal arrivals.

Under former prime minister John Howard, boats were intercepted and those on board were taken to Pacific island countries that hosted offshore immigration centres on Canberra's behalf to be processed there under United Nations rules.

The so-called Pacific Solution was credited with stopping the flow of unwanted arrivals but was discontinued by Rudd who deemed it inhumane. (dpa)