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	The rescue ship Rudnetsky lowers a Russian mini rescue submarine from the board in the Barents Sea, Friday, Aug. 18, 2000, in this image from television. The rescue capsule reached one of the escape hatches on a sunken Russian nuclear submarine for the first time Friday but was unable to gain access because it was so badly damaged. (AP Photo/RTR-Russian Television Channel)***TV OUT***

August 20, 2000 

OSLO, Norway (AP) - Norwegian divers and a British rescue team armed with a sophisticated mini-submarine moved closer to a sunken Russian submarine Saturday as prospects for finding any of the 118 sailors on board alive appeared increasingly bleak.

Two Norwegian ships carrying the teams and their equipment reached the waters off Vardoe on Norway's northern tip early Saturday as they sailed toward the Barents Sea, where the nuclear-powered Kursk plunged 108 meters (350 feet) below the surface a week ago.

Helicopters were carrying Russian officials to each ship Saturday morning to discuss details of the rescue effort, said Col. John Espen Lien of the Norwegian Northern Defense Command.

"There was a slight delay, but they are on their way out now," he said early Saturday.

The ship carrying the British rescue team was making "good speed" and was on schedule to reach its goal by Saturday afternoon, according to the British Ministry of Defense.

Russia has vowed to continue to try to reach the Kursk. But mounting evidence that the submarine suffered massive damage darkened hopes that any crewmen could be alive.

"As long as there is any chance, we have to investigate it," Lien said.

Russian rescue capsules, which have been working around the clock since Tuesday, could not latch onto the escape hatch, which was buckled and torn, officials said Friday in Moscow.

An unidentified Russian submarine cruises in the Barents Sea in this image made from television, Friday August 18, 2000, near the location where the Russian nuclear submarine Kursk has sunk with all it's crew on board.(AP Photo/APTV) **TV OUT**

The British Ministry of Defense has said design drawings provided by the Russians indicated that the British LR5 mini-sub should be able to connect with the hatches on the stricken submarine.

A British Defense Ministry spokesman said the rescue submarine was fitted with more advanced equipment than the Russian vessels.

British officials said the submarine could make its first dive to the stricken as early as Saturday evening.

Lien said the British submarine could reach the scene as early as Saturday afternoon, with the Norwegian diving vessel a few hours behind it if all goes according to plan.

Even though the rescue ships were racing at full speed, their pace - under 15 knots (17 mph, 27 kph) - was like a crawl to rescuers anxious to get to the Russian sub.

"The most important thing is to help get these people up. That's what counts now," professional diver Paal Stefan Dinesen, 34, was quoted telling the Norwegian news agency NTB.

Nick Gilbert in the rescue department of the British mini-submarine rescue vessel LR5 stowed on the supply ship, the Normand Pioneer, in the Norwegian port of Trondheim Friday AUG. 18, 2000. The supply vessel which has also been loaded with other specialist equipment, including decompression chambers, is preparing for departure to the Barents Sea, where the submarine Kursk is stranded on the bottom in about 350 feet of Arctic water. (AP Photo/Royal Navy HO)

He was among about a dozen divers described as the elite of Norway's offshore oil industry.

Stolt Offshore, the company that owns the diving vessel, was worried about strong ocean currents near the wreck.

"Diving can normally be carried out in up to 1.5 knots (1.7 mph, 2.7 kph) of current," said Leif Aspen of Stolt. "If it is stronger than that, it is hard to work."