NATO Piracy

Meeting in Brussels on Thursday, the ministers decided to expand their five-ship maritime force off the coast of Somalia to 10 warships when the current mandate expires on June 28.

British Defense Minister Bob Ainsworth said the group had agreed to make the NATO flotilla "available for further, long-term counter-piracy activities to complement the many assets doing this job in the Indian Ocean and Gulf of Aden."

NATO ministers, however, were still discussing whether or not to divert the additional ships from their Mediterranean forces or put together an entirely new force.

Mission still faced with legal snags

The current mission has been dogged by legal difficulties because each warship acts according to its own nation's laws, and some legal systems have no provisions for dealing with pirates apprehended in international waters.

This led to a situation on April 18 in which three NATO vessels and two helicopters captured seven pirates after an all-night, high seas, chase, but then had to release them, due to conflicting regulations.

The European Union, which also has a flotilla in the region, has solved the problem by agreeing on a prisoner transfer deal with Kenya.

NATO Secretary General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer has said that the alliance is now working along the same lines. He said negotiations were underway with the Seychelles and two other unnamed countries in the region as potential partners.

The NATO flotilla, known as the Standing Maritime Force, has been on duty off the coast of Somalia since last November. It has been joined by the EU squadron, a US-led task force and by ships from a number of other countries, including China, India, Malaysia and Russia.

gb/dpa/AP

Editor: Sonia Phalnikar