(Recasts, adds Red Crescent, Spanish government comment)

By Andrew Hay

MADRID, Feb 6 (Reuters) - Spain and Mauritania haggled on Tuesday over who should take in hundreds of Asian and African migrants left floating in a ship off the West African coast.

The stricken vessel broke down in international waters and was rescued on Saturday by a Spanish coastguard ship that tried to tow it to the nearest port, in line with maritime rules.

Mauritania has said it is not responsible for the migrant vessel, which is thought to have set out from Guinea, hundreds of miles to the south, on its way to Spain's Canary Islands.

The vessel is now moored off Mauritania's northern fishing port of Nouadhibou, its passengers stuck in limbo.

"This is about international law, they were shipwrecked and rescued at sea, they must be allowed to land in Mauritania," a Spanish Foreign Ministry spokesman said.

Neither government said they were near to an accord.

Spain estimates there are around 200 migrants aboard the ship, known as the Marine 1. Most of them are from the Indian continent, especially Pakistan, Spain's Foreign Ministry said.

Mauritania's Red Crescent put the number at 400. It said most passengers were from the Indian region of Kashmir and there were no women or children among them.

"There's no problem on the health front. We have sent them water, biscuits, sandwiches, cheese and fruit juice," said the Red Crescent's Ahmedou Ould Haye, who has only been in touch with the boat by radio.

Estimates on the number and nationalities of migrants vary as no one has boarded the ship, Spain's Foreign Ministry said.

The Marine 1 passengers are the latest group of Europe-bound migrants to find themselves stranded at sea while governments wrangle over their future.

Last July a group of African migrants rescued by a Spanish fishing trawler were left off the coast of Malta as European countries argued over who should take responsibility for them.

Spain's government has stepped up diplomatic and aid ties with West Africa to try to stem illegal immigration, which is seen a major problem by Spaniards, according to polls.

Over 31,000 illegal immigrants, most of them African, arrived by boat in Spain's Canary Islands during 2006, more than six times as many as the previous year.

Asian migrants pay people traffickers up to 15,000 euros ($19,390) to smuggle them to Europe on increasingly complicated routes via Africa and the Canaries, the United Nations says. (Additional reporting by Alistair Thomson)

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