(Adds another body found, fresh comments)

ARGUINEGUIN, Spain, Sept 3 (Reuters) - Thirteen African migrants were found dead on a fishing boat intercepted by police off Spain's Canary Islands and another body was later found at sea, a government official said on Wednesday.

Survivors' accounts differed but the group was at sea between eight and 12 days, the boat lost its way several times and the engine needed repair on the voyage, the provincial head of the Red Cross in Las Palmas told Spanish national radio.

The bodies in the open boat could be seen partly submerged in a pool of water within the wooden hull, covered in a mess of floating raincoats. The victims probably died from hypothermia, the Red Cross spokesman said.

A further 46 people were alive on the boat discovered 2 km (just over one mile) off the port of Arguineguin at 8:30 a.m. (0730 GMT) on the island of Gran Canaria, after surviving a sea journey from the African mainland in an attempt to start new lives in Spain, a Spanish government spokesman said.

Among the survivors were two women and several children, a Reuters photographer at the scene said.

Police found the fourteenth body around 15 km (nine miles) off the coast.

Thirty-two of the survivors have so far been transferred to police stations where police will try to trace their identities and countries of residence, said the government spokesman.

The Spanish government routinely deports adult illegal migrants, and toughened up its repatriation policy after 30,000 Africans made it to the Canaries in 2006, briefly pushing immigration to the top of voters' concerns.

Thousands of Africans are believed to have died of hypothermia, thirst or drowning in attempts to reach Spain by boat in recent years. (Reporting by Borja Suarez and Feliciano Tisera, writing by Sarah Morris; editing by Andrew Dobbie)

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