Russia was last nightracing against time to rescue seven sailors stranded in a mini-submarine on the Pacific Ocean floor with as little as 24 hours' air supply - an accident with echoes of the Kursk submarine disaster in which 118 seamen died.

Though on a far smaller scale, the accident came a week before the fifth anniversary of the sinking of the Kursk, a state-of-the-art nuclear submarine.

The Kursk crisis provided an early test for President Vladimir Putin, five months into his first term, when he was deemed to have handled the emergency poorly. The president waited a week before breaking off his holiday, then had a highly uncomfortable meeting with relatives of those lost on the submarine.

The Russian AS-28 mini-submarine, itself a rescue vessel, was taking part in a military exercise off Kamchatka in the Russian far east when its propeller snagged a fishing net. As it tried to pull free, naval officials said, the net became wrapped around the propeller and the submarine came to rest at a depth of 190m.

The US was last night airlifting an unmanned Super Scorpio rescue submarine from San Diego and a Japanese rescue ship was steaming towards the stricken submarine, responding to Russian requests for assistance.

But Admiral Viktor Fyodorov, commander of Russia's Pacific Fleet, insisted the Russian navy, with 10 of its own ships in the area, could rescue the crew before its dwindling air supplies ran out. The admiral told Russian television that equipment was in place to snare the submarine with cables and tow it to shallower water.

The navy said the crew had thermal clothing and food and water for several days, but there were conflicting reports on air supplies. A naval spokesman said there was oxygen for less than 24 hours on board, but Admiral Fyodorov insisted that there was enough to last until August 8.

"We will carry out this [rescue] using our own resources and will raise [the submarine] to the surface," he said.

During the Kursk incident, Russian authorities refused offers of foreign help until it was too late, and lied about the fate of the sailors on board.

They also suggested that the Kursk had been sunk by a collision with a foreign submarine, although the real cause was an explosion in a torpedo tube.

The incident is seen as having spurred Mr Putin to restore state control over Russia's main television channels, then still controlled by wealthy "oligarchs", after they sharply criticised the president and his government's handling of the crisis. ORT, then controlled by Boris Berezovsky, and NTV, controlled by Vladimir Gusinsky - who had already fled abroad after an earlier clash with Mr Putin - showed the president jet-skiing on the Black Sea as the crisis unfolded.

There were signs yesterday that Moscow had learned lessons from the Kursk crisis. Russia quickly sought foreign help, and provided information on how the accident had happened.

On Russia's three main television channels, now back under state control, reporting of the incident was measured, emphasising the lengths to which Russia was going to ensure the crew were rescued.