The United States said yesterday there was so far no evidence that the crew of the US nuclear submarine which sank a Japanese trawler botched safety drills. Meanwhile, President Bush offered prayers to missing victims of the tragedy.
As the search went on for nine people unaccounted for after the sinking of the 499-tonne Ehime Maru off Hawaii on Friday, Mr Bush made his first public comments on the disaster during a visit to Fort Stewart military base, Georgia.
"I would ask for your prayers for those still missing after the tragic accident involving one of our naval submarines and a Japanese fishing vessel off the coast of Hawaii," Mr Bush said.
Twenty-six people were plucked from the Pacific after the submarine, USS Greeneville, rammed the fishing boat while practising an emergency surfacing manoeuvre in the waters off the Hawaiian island of Oahu.
Four of the nine still missing are 17-year-old Japanese fisheries students.
As inquiries into the disaster began yesterday, the National Security Adviser, Ms Condoleezza Rice, said there was so far no evidence that the Greeneville had failed to follow a set of safety drills before attempting to surface.
"There's no evidence yet that proper procedures were not followed," Ms Rice said on ABC television, one of three appearances on US networks in which she faced a volley of questions on the tragedy.
Ms Rice promised an "absolutely clear and transparent investigation" into the tragedy. "It is a very, very sad incident. We are very apologetic about it," she added on NBC television.
As dawn broke over Hawaii, all hope for the nine missing after the tragedy appeared to have evaporated.
The US Coast Guard said that there had been no significant progress in the search, which used five ships - four US and one Japanese training vessel - and several aircraft.
Senior Japanese officials at the weekend stepped up pressure on the United States to raise the sunken trawler, amid speculation that the bodies of the nine people still missing may be trapped inside.
Vice-President Dick Cheney had already phoned the Japanese Foreign Minister, Mr Yohei Kono, she said.
The sinking deals another blow to the public image of the US military in Japan, following an incident last week in which a US general insulted local politicians and a series of assaults on Japanese women by US troops.
A computerised Pentagon video of the surfacing drill released late on Sunday showed a submarine bursting on to the surface at a 45-degree angle and plunging back into water like a playing whale.