MOSCOW, Aug. 5 (Xinhuanet) -- The Russian military was racing the clock Friday to rescue a small submarine and its seven-member crewafter the vessel got stuck overnight on the seabed off the Kamchatka Peninsula on Russia's Pacific coast.

    The submarine got entangled with a fishnet Thursday night 190 meters underwater in the Beryozovaya Bay, 200 km south of Kamchatka's regional capital Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky.

    "The diving apparatus's propeller brushed on a fragment of a fishnet. As it tried to disentangle, the net wound up on the propeller," Igor Dygalo, an aide to the Russian Navy commander, told the Itar-Tass news agency.

    Reports on supplies aboard for the crew varied from two to five days worth of food, water and oxygen, but medical experts warned conditions on the vessel are worsening.

    "The temperature aboard the vessel is five degrees Celsius. The crewmembers are wearing thermal suits," Dygalo said.

    The diving apparatus has been examined through cameras and the rescue operation headquarters has reliable information on the state and position of the vessel, Dygalo said.

    Rescue work for the submarine is underway with ten vessels, including two rescue ships and a sea towboat, involved in the operation.

    The Foreign Ministry has asked Japan and the United States to assist in the rescue operation.

    Japan has sent rescue ships to join the rescue work. Russian Pacific Fleet Commander Admiral Viktor Fyodorov is now in talks with top US naval officers over US assistance.

    Military prosecutors of Russia's Pacific Fleet have launched a probe into the incident. Enditem ¡¡