Prospects reported last week that log book details found inside the submarine may give clues to its sinking were put aside at the weekend.

        The Russian Navy’s Northern Fleet Commander, Admiral Vyacheslav Popov, told journalists yesterday (Sunday) that the notes "are purely technical and are of no use as far as the cause of the catastrophe is concerned."

        In an interview quoted by Russian news agency RIA Novosti, Popov updated reporters on work continuing inside Kurk’s wrecked hull and on handling the cruise missiles whose damaged containers have prevented their removal from the submarine.

        He said the six still on board would be secured firmly to the hull and cut out with their launch silos when Kursk was finally taken apart at a naval scrapyard.

        The senior officer said the search for more bodies would continue until all the debris had been removed. "This may take several months," he said.

        Accident inquiries by the Russian prosecutor-general’s office and the main military prosecutor’s department were wound up yesterday, Popov said in an Interfax news agency report.

        Northern Fleet investigators would continue their work on the submarine, he added.

        ends