(Recasts with Panama ship sinking)

MANILA, Nov 28 (Reuters) - A Panama-registered cargo ship and two Chinese fishing boats sank in rough seas off Taiwan and the Philippines as two typhoons hit the area, leaving 42 people missing, officials said.

Taiwan's coast guard rescued one man after it received the cargo ship's call for help on Tuesday before it sank off the northeastern tip of Taiwan as Typhoon Mitag struck, an official said.

Nearly 30 people were missing, he said.

"From yesterday to today, we haven't found anyone else, but the coast guard has not given up hope yet. However, because of the strong winds, the rescue effort has been difficult," the official told Reuters by telephone.

Typhoon Mitag, which hit the region earlier this week, has already killed around 19 after more people were drowned by flooding in the northern Philippines.

Earlier in the day, the Philippine coast guard said two Chinese fishing boats sank in rough seas caused by another typhoon off the Philippines and at least 12 people were missing.

The ships sank off Palawan island, in the South China Sea, on Tuesday night, the coast guard said.

Earlier, Chinese official media said Beijing had sent three vessels and a helicopter to pick up more than 700 fishermen left stranded by the typhoon, named Hagibis, on and around islands in the South China Sea.

Hagibis, which has weakened to a tropical depression, killed 14 people in the Philippines last week, went west toward Vietnam and then made a dramatic U-turn over the South China Sea before returning to the Philippines.

It has passed over the Philippines' central Bicol region and is currently heading back east to the Pacific, according to typhoon tracking Web site Tropical Storm Risk (www.tropicalstormrisk.com).

China's Maritime Rescue Centre airdropped bottled mineral water and food enough for more than 300 people in the Xisha island area, Chinese state media said.

More than 400 fishermen from the southern province of Hainan province and 29 from the Philippines remain stranded in the Nansha area.

A Philippine fishing boat sank in the South China Sea last week because of Hagibis and 26 sailors are still missing from the 55 people believed to have been on board.

Radio reports said that Hagibis had killed at least four children on Palawan on its return through the Philippines.

Disaster officials have yet to confirm the deaths.

Storms regularly batter the Philippines. Last year, Typhoon Durian killed 1,200 people and left 120,000 homeless when it crashed through Bicol in December.

($1=42.76) (Reporting by Raju Gopalakrishnan; Additional reporting by Beijing newsroom, Ralph Jennings and Christine Lu in Taipei; Editing by Sanjeev Miglani)

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