"The submarine resurfaced and the seven submariners are alive," Russian navy spokesman Igor Dygalo said.

"They emerged by themselves, transferred to a motor-launch and will be placed aboard a ship where they will receive medical treatment," Dygalo was quoted by news agencies as saying.

Once back on land, the crew were expected to be taken to a local hospital in Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky for observation and medical care.

Rear Admiral Vladimir Pepelyayev, deputy chief of the Russian naval general staff, described the condition of the crew as "satisfactory."

The "Priz" AS-28 mini-submarine returned to the surface after a sophisticated British "Scorpio" submersible robot equipped with heavy-duty cutting blades succeeded in extracting the vessel from undersea debris in which it had become entangled, officials said.

The freeing of the trapped submarine and the rescue of the crew was a welcome happy ending to a drama that some feared might end like that Kursk submarine disaster five years ago in which all 183 crewmen died.

Russian Defense Minister Sergei Ivanov, dispatched Saturday to oversee the rescue operation, arrived at the scene just in time to monitor the quick progress made by the British robot in cutting the stricken submarine free of the debris after previous Russian rescue efforts failed.

"I want to thank our English colleagues for their help in the rescue operation," Interfax quoted Pepelyayev as saying following news that the crew had been saved.

The submarine had been stranded at a depth of around 190 meters (625 feet) roughly 70 kilometers (45 miles) south of the city Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky, the local capital of Russia's Kamchatka peninsula, a strategically sensitive region known to house a number of military installations.

Russian officials said it became stuck due to a combination of fishing net fragments becoming entangled in the vessel's propeller and parts of an undersea coastal surveillance antenna system which snared the mini-submarine.

The commander of the Russian Pacific Fleet, Admiral Viktor Fyodorov, however said he was not worried about the presence in the area of foreign naval personnel involved in the effort to save the trapped submariners.

"There are secret zones in this region that are off-limits, such as entry to a submarine base," Interfax news agency quoted Fyodorov as saying. "But I see no particular problem with participation of foreign rescuers in the operation."

Confusion over the cause of the accident and the widely-varying accounts of how much air the crew had left recalled the chaotic reaction to the sinking of the nuclear submarine Kursk in the Barents Sea almost exactly five years ago in which all 118 crew died.

Russia was widely criticized for their sluggish response to that disaster, but their appeal for foreign assistance in dealing with the Kamchatka accident was in stark contrast to past behavior and appeared to have been decisive in saving the crew.

The Priz AS-28 is of Soviet design dating from 1986 and only four were built. Meant for deep water rescue missions, there is room for three operators and 20 saved sailors.

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