KIEV, March 24 – Ukraine’s top national security body said Monday it will launch a probe into a recent collision of Ukrainian and Chinese ships near Hong Kong that is feared to have left 18 Ukrainian sailors dead.

The sailors have been trapped in a sunken Ukrainian ship for nearly two days and rescue teams have apparently detected no signs of life.

“We have to study the state of maritime transportation with ships sailing under Ukrainian flags and with employment of Ukrainian crews,” the National Security and Defense Council, the top security body under President Viktor Yushchenko, said in a statement.

“This is needed so that we put lives, health and social interests of Ukrainian sailors to a higher level than production statistics and making profits at any cost,” the council said.

The sailors would have survived 12 hours since the accident late Saturday based on the current water temperature of 17 degrees Celsius (63 Fahrenheit) at the 37-meter (120-feet) depth of the wreck, Roger Tupper, director of Hong Kong's Marine Department, told reporters in Hong Kong on Monday.

He said rescue divers have continuously knocked on the hull of the ship but the sailors have not signaled back.

"Their chances for survival are very slim," Bangkok Post reported Monday citing spokeswoman Zhang Jianwen of China's Guangzhou Salvage Bureau, which is assisting Hong Kong rescue officials.

Tupper said, however, rescuers will continue their efforts until the Ukrainian vessel is retrieved and the bodies are located.

He said bad conditions and the upside down position of the wreck hindered rescue efforts.

"The current is very strong. The visibility is very, very short. It's completely dark. Even in daylight, it's absolutely black down 37 meters (120 feet)," Tupper said.

Zhang said the Guangzhou Salvage Bureau's divers were tying up the Ukrainian tugboat and preparing it for a move from to shallower waters to ease rescue efforts, he said.

Preparation for the move was expected to take several days and a large Chinese salvage ship will be dispatched to Hong Kong from nearby waters Friday, Zhang said. He said the salvage ship would arrive Friday or Saturday.

The trapped sailors are between the ages of 21 and 54, according to information released by Hong Kong's Marine Department. Their identifies were not immediately available.

The tugboat Naftogaz 67 - which had been detained in Hong Kong in 2003 with safety problems - sank late Saturday when it collided with Chinese cargo ship Yao Hai in waters northwest of Hong Kong's outlying Lantau island.

The 80-meter-long (264-foot-long) Ukrainian vessel sank quickly but the Chinese ship suffered only bow damage and stayed afloat, officials said. Only seven of the 25 on the Ukrainian ship were found.

The Naftogaz 67 was detained in Hong Kong in September 2003 for safety problems, according to documents from Hong Kong's Marine Department.

The documents said that the ship did not provide "means of escape" or "escape breathing apparatus," and that vessel personnel were not familiar with safety procedures, according to Bangkok Post.

It was not immediately clear if those problems were addressed during the detention. Government spokeswoman Heidi Liu said she could not immediately comment. (nr/bp/ez)