Explosion engulfs French oil tanker

SAN`A, Yemen -- An explosion and fire engulfed a French oil tanker on Sunday off the coast of Yemen, and the tanker owner said a small boat struck the vessel in a "deliberate attack."\nYemeni officials, however, said there was no indication the tanker was attacked and that the fire was caused by an oil leak. French officials said it was still too early to say if the explosion was an act of terrorism.\n"We don't have enough elements to allow us to formulate a…hypothesis which would point to a terrorist attack," French Foreign Ministry spokesman Francois Rivasseau said Sunday night in Paris.\nFrance will quickly send investigators to Yemen, President Jacques Chirac's office said after Chirac spoke by phone with Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh. Yemen's prime minister, Abdul-Kader Bajammal, formed a special committee to investigate.\nYemeni officials said a leak caused the fire on the vessel, named the Limburg, about three miles off the port of Mina al-Dabah.\nThe Limburg's captain, Hubert Ardillon, said the fire set off an explosion while crewmen tried to get the blaze under control, an unidentified Yemeni official told the state-run SABA news agency. He said efforts were being made to contain oil leakage from the ship.\nBut Jacques Moizan, director of Euronav, which owns the tanker said the explosion was a "deliberate act." He said a smaller ship struck the starboard side of the Limburg.\nEuronav's financial and administrative director, Alain Ferre, said a crewmember saw a fishing boat pull up toward the tanker before the blast at 9:15 a.m. Ferre speculated it could not have caused such a huge blast unless it was carrying explosives.