SANTIAGO - CHILEAN navy vessels on Friday evacuated all the passengers from an Argentine cruise ship which had run aground in Antarctica, a Chilean commander in charge of the operation said.

The passengers were taken off the cruise liner, Ciudad de Ushaia, which became stuck on Thursday in Wilhelmina Bay, part of the Antarctic peninsula that reaches towards the southern tip of South America, Commander Alan Nettle said.

Argentine authorities on Thursday said the cruise ship was carrying 89 passengers and 33 crew members. They said no one on board was hurt and the vessel was in no danger of sinking.

The nationalities of those who were on the Ciudad de Ushaia were not known, though such cruises to the world's only uninhabited continent were popular with foreigners.

There were media reports of Australians, Britons and Americans on board.

Mr Nettle, speaking to the Cooperative radio station in Chile's capital Santiago, said a Chilean navy transport, Aquiles, 'has embarked all of the passengers from the ship Ushaia.'

He added that the cruise ship's crew remained on board their vessel 'to carry out salvage actions the owner will have to follow.' A spokeswoman for the Chilean navy told AFP the evacuation was carried out between 0630 and 1000 GMT on Friday (2.30pm and 6pm Singapore time).

The grounded cruise ship was used for tourist trips around Antarctica - an increasingly popular activity in the southern hemisphere's warmer months for wealthy tourists.

The ship regularly left from Ushaia, the southernmost Argentine city.

Similar accidents have happened in the past.

In December 2007, a Norwegian cruise liner, Fram, floated adrift for two hours before rescue in the same region with 256 passengers and 70 crew on board after its engines failed.

In November 2007, a Canadian-owned ship, Explorer, sank after hitting an iceberg. Its 154 occupants abandoned ship in lifeboats and were rescued without injury, though a massive fuel slick sullied the pristine protected nature zone. -- AFP