MOSCOW/PARIS, August 15 (RIA Novosti) -...

Sovfrakht said the cargo ship was in the Atlantic"s Bay of Biscay near France"s La Rochelle port, citing data from the tracking device as of 12:30 Moscow time (08:30 GMT), but later added the signal had disappeared within an hour.

France"s Navy officials, however, rejected the report saying the vessel was not in the area.

"I strongly reject the report and so does, I think, Spain," French marine spokesman Capt. Jerome Baroe said. "Data from a [naval] operational center in Brest unequivocally shows that the Arctic Sea is not in the Bay of Biscay."

He said the signal emitted by the Automatic Identification System had come from three Russian warships heading from the Mediterranean to the Baltic Sea. They have notified French authorities that they will pass off Brittany tonight, Baroe said.

The conflicting reports continued to fuel the mystery surrounding the Maltese-flagged freighter carrying timber and crewed by 15 Russian sailors. It set off from Finland

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