Plans for naval blockade of Somali coast to stop pirates

Shipping officials from around the world called Monday for a military blockade along Somalia's coast to intercept pirate vessels heading out to sea.

But NATO, which has four warships off the coast of Somalia, rejected a blockade.

Peter Swift, managing director of the International Association of Independent Tanker Owners, said stronger naval action - including aerial and aviation support - is necessary to battle rampant piracy in the Gulf of Aden near Somalia.

Some 20 tankers sail through the sea lane daily. But many tanker owners are considering a massive detour around southern Africa to avoid pirates, which will delay delivery and push costs up by 30 per cent, Swift said.

The association, whose members own 2,900 tankers or 75 per cent of the world's fleet, opposes attempts to arm merchant ships because it could escalate the violence and put crew members at even greater risk, he said.

"The other option is perhaps putting a blockade around Somalia and introducing the idea of intercepting vessels leaving Somalia rather than to try to protect the whole of the Gulf of Aden," Swift said.

Somali pirates have become increasingly brazen, seizing eight vessels in the past two weeks alone, including the Saudi supertanker loaded with $100 million US worth of crude oil.

A blockade along Somalia's 3,850-kilometre coastline would not be easy.

"But some intervention there may be effective," Swift told reporters on the sidelines of a shipping conference in Malaysia.

U.S. Gen. John Craddock, NATO's supreme allied commander, said Monday the alliance's mandate is solely to escort World Food Program ships to Somalia and to conduct anti-piracy patrols.

Asked what he thought of a Russian proposal to jointly attack the pirate strongholds, Craddock answered: "That's far beyond what I've been tasked to do."

Somalia, an impoverished country caught up in tribal wars and an Islamic insurgency, has had no functioning government since 1991. There have been 95 pirate attacks so far this year in Somali waters, with 39 ships hijacked.

Fifteen ships with nearly 300 crew are still in the hands of Somali pirates, who dock the hijacked vessels near the eastern and southern coast as they negotiate for ransom.

"Any action to prevent the pirates from heading out to sea is welcome," said Noel Choong, who heads the International Maritime Bureau's piracy reporting centre in Kuala Lumpur. He said it was up to the international community to decide how they can deploy their forces for the blockade.