It would have been very difficult for us to continue if the information had not improved

Norwegian military spokesman

General Manilov said the Russian failure was mainly due to limited funding.

"Money was allocated only for the basic elements of the country's military potential," he told a news conference in Moscow.

"Peripheral systems were not given the necessary attention."

He said there had been problems with the navy's rescue equipment, including the capsule sent down to free the trapped sailors.

In Norway, a military spokesman, Colonel John Espen Lien, said early information provided by the Russians was so inadequate that the rescue team questioned whether it could proceed with its mission, fearing it would endanger the deep-sea divers involved.

No explanation

"It would have been very difficult for us to continue if the information had not improved," he said.

"It took unnecessary time."

Mr Lien said the problem was caused by lower ranking officers, unsure how much they could reveal to officers from Nato countries.

However, the problem was immediately resolved when it was taken to the commander of Russia's Northern Fleet, Admiral Vyacheslav Popov.

Mr Lien said some of the information given was also incorrect. This included assessments of damage to the escape hatch.

"The Russians never explained what happened," he said.

Russian investigators are launching their criminal inquiry into the cause of the accident without preconceptions about where it might lead.

Dagestanis probed

Prosecutor-general Vladimir Ustinov said the appropriate statute of the criminal code would be determined once the cause of the accident was established.

We have been gathering intelligence on this subject since the very first day

Security chief, Nikolai Patrushev

At the same time, Russia's secret services have launched a probe into two Dagestanis who were on board the Kursk when it sank.

The chief of the Federal Security Service, Nikolai Patrushev, was quoted by Russian media as saying that the two men, Mamed Gadzhiyev and Arnold Borisov, worked for a torpedo-manufacturing firm and were not members of the crew.

"We have been gathering intelligence on this subject since the very first day but we do not at the moment have any proof implicating them in the accident," Mr Patrushev said, according to the independent NTV television station.

Earlier, about 150 bereaved relatives held an emotional memorial ceremony in the Barents Sea, lowering flowers into the waters where the Kursk sank roughly 100km from the Russian coast.

Memorial

Wreaths were also laid on behalf of President Vladimir Putin, the Russian Government and the navy, local media reported.

One woman was overcome by grief at the ceremony

In the closed naval town of Vidyayevo, near Murmansk, where the Kursk began its last mission, a commemorative stone was laid in the earth.

A large crowd of relatives, many weeping, listened as Vice-Admiral Vladimir Dobroskuchenko gave a speech.

One woman fainted and had to be helped by medical workers standing by.

Relatives had refused to join the country's national day of mourning on Wednesday, saying they could not grieve until the bodies of the crew were recovered from the seabed.

Experts have warned that this could take many months.