BY CAROL ROSENBERG

 Six Cubans wielding knives hijacked a fishing boat from a dock north of Havana
 Monday, capturing its crew and speeding toward Miami until the U.S. Coast
 Guard stopped them and summoned FBI hostage negotiators to solve the
 standoff-at-sea, authorities said.
 Late Monday night, the Cubans were being held at sea aboard the Coast Guard
 cutter Thetis south of Key West -- setting the stage for another diplomatic drama
 over whether the Cubans will be returned home to Havana or taken to the United
 States.
 Two people on board the 30-foot Albacora were injured in the clash. One of two
 Cuban crew members was slashed in the hand and stomach and a hijacker was
 cut on the hand. None of the injuries were life-threatening.

 Two FBI agents and an immigration service agent were to be airlifted to the
 270-foot-long cutter early today to conduct interviews.

 At issue: Whether any of the Cubans are candidates for political asylum, to be
 decided by the immigration service; whether the six alleged hijackers were to face
 U.S. or Cuban justice, to be decided by a joint Justice-State Department
 committee in Washington after interviews by the two FBI agents from Miami.

 ``Right now we're going through the process of sorting out who's who and
 jurisdiction,'' Assistant Special Agent in Charge Ricardo Martinez said Monday
 night.

 Authorities said the drama unfolded midday Monday when the six Cubans, five
 men and a woman in their 20s, boarded the Albacora in a port north of Havana
 and scuffled with the two crew members. After taking charge of the vessel, the
 boat sped north with two Cuban coast guard vessels giving chase.

 Cuban authorities, meantime, telexed the U.S. Coast Guard in Miami to intercept
 an illegal vessel. At the same time, Foreign Ministry officials called the U.S.
 Interest Section in Havana to report a hijacking to the U.S. diplomats in the
 Malecon building where Cuban protesters were demanding return of 6-year-old
 Elian Gonzalez.

 The fiberglass Chris-Craft vessel out-sped a Cuban Coast Guard gunboat, which
 abandoned the chase at about 3:17 p.m.when the boat entered U.S. territorial
 waters. There the U.S. Coast Guard cutters Thetis and Sapelo took up the chase,
 said Petty Officer Steven Carriere in Key West.

 Eventually stopped at sea, because the boat ran out of fuel about 12 miles south
 of Boca Chica, the hijackers at first resisted U.S. demands to board. Martinez
 said Coast Guard officers aboard the cutters were so concerned about the
 standoff that they called in Miami-based FBI hostage negotiators, who were
 airlifted to the scene by helicopter and dropped aboard the Thetis.

 In the interim, however, the hijackers gave up.

 First, the wounded hijacker and crew member were taken by helicopter to the
 Thetis, where they were treated for their injuries. The other six were later ``taken
 on a small boat to the cutter,'' said Coast Guard spokeswoman Silvia Olvera.

 FBI agents rarely have been involved in migrant interdictions. Sea episodes are
 mostly the province of the Coast Guard. Later, the Immigration and Naturalization
 Service must decide whether migrants should be sent back to Cuba or taken to
 the U.S. Naval Base at Guantanamo Bay for further interviews on asylum
 requests.

 Both the INS interviewer and the FBI agents were in Key West late Monday,
 awaiting air transport to the cutter.

 A State Department official, speaking on background, said the last similar
 incident was in July when two Indians and a Pakistani hired two Cuban sailors for
 a day of fishing off Marina Hemingway in Havana -- then allegedly attacked the
 crew and hijacked the boat toward the United States.

 Intercepted south of Key West, the three defendants were taken to the United
 States and indicted on international hijacking charges, for which they could
 receive a maximum 60 years in prison. All three are simultaneously appealing for
 political asylum in the United States.

 In that instance, it took the FBI two days to decide to bring the suspects to the
 United States for trial.

 U.S. officials declined to say whether the Cubans, who could face trial at home,
 would be more likely to be charged here or there.

 Herald staff writer Susana Bellido contributed to this report from Key West.

                     Copyright 1999 Miami Herald