ROUGH CUT (NO REPORTER NARRATION)

STORY: A crippled cruise ship owned by the company whose giant liner was wrecked off the coast of Italy last month, is being towed to the main island in the Seychelles, its owners said on Tuesday.

An engine room fire on the Costa Allegra knocked out the ship's main power supply in the Indian Ocean on Monday, leaving it adrift with more than a thousand people on board in waters vulnerable to pirate attacks.

The ship's Italian owner, Costa Cruises, said a plan to tow it to the nearer island of Desroches had been aborted because it would have been harder to moor and disembark the passengers there.

A deep sea trawler which sails the oceans for tuna from the Atlantic port of Concarneau, is pulling the Costa Allegra, a vessel many times its size.

The trawler was joined on Tuesday by two tugs and a coastguard ship, all from Seychelles, the archipelago's government said.