The accident on the Chicoutimi, which caught fire while being brought to Canada from Britain this week has added to mounting political pressures for Prime Minister Paul Martin.

Lieutenant Chris Saunders died and two other members of the 57 crew were injured.

Martin planned to visit the injured on Friday in Ireland.

"I think that, if I'm able -- and that will totally depend on the state of their health -- if I'm able to go to the hospital in Sligo and see them, I will go to Sligo," he said.

Hours earlier in the House of Commons, conservative opposition chief Stephen Harper reproached the government for not doing enough to update defense equipment, facing obsolescence after a decade of strict budget-tightening measures.

Martin presided over those cuts as finance minister, essentially forcing Ottawa to buy four old submarines, including the Chicoutimi, from Britain that took several years to repair.

"Chris Saunders may have paid with his life for our governments' parsimony," the conservative daily National Post said.

"We need to have submarines to maintain security in Canada, and these submarines were the best that were available at the time," Defense Minister Bill Graham said.

Without dismissing the possibility of suing Britain over the submarine, Graham stressed that the accident "calls for a very serious investigation to learn the causes and determine what actions will follow."

The accident comes as the government fights for its survival in a vote of confidence in Ottawa on Thursday night.

The showdown, which could be determined by just one vote in the 308-seat House of Commons. The French speaking regional party, Bloc Quebecois, has tabled an amendment to the government program commiting it to spending budget surpluses on provincial governments.

After a cabinet meeting, Martin said the move would remove the rights and obligations of the federal parliament to control the budget.

Martin evaded questions on whether the government would resign immediately if it loses the vote or try to defeat the Bloc proposal by voting against the amended Conservative proposal.

Following the June 28 election, Martin's governing Liberal Party has 134 seats in the House of Commons. The Conservative Party has 99 seats, the Bloc Quebecois has 54 and the leftist New Democrats have 19. There is one independent.

With one Liberal MP and one Conservative reported to be too ill to vote, the ruling party has been promised the support of the New Democrats -- giving the government a probable vote tally of 152.

The remaining Conservatives and Bloc Quebecois, if they stand together, will also have 152 votes. All eyes will be on independent MP Chuck Cadman, a former Conservative, who has so far refused to say which way he will vote.

If the government loses the crucial vote and resigns, it will be up to Governor General Adrienne Clarkson to call a new general election or ask Harper to try to form a new government.

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