Mogadishu: Armed pirates hijacked another massive tanker as world powers yesterday headed toward the Somali coast to end a two-week standoff aboard a ship laden with tanks and weapons, officials said.

The latest ship to be seized, a vessel flying a Panamanian flag, was travelling from Southeast Asia to Europe, said Noel Choong, head of the International Maritime Bureau's piracy reporting centre in Kuala Lumpur.

There were no further details on the ship, which was seized on Friday.

Pirates, who have been holding the Ukrainian MV Faina for two weeks, have threatened to destroy the vessel unless a ransom is paid. Six US warships are surrounding the Faina and a Russian frigate was heading toward the scene, raising the stakes for a possible commando-style raid.

Calls to the Odessa offices of the ship's operator, Tomex Corp., rang unanswered yesterday.

Pirates have seized more than two dozen ships this year off the Horn of Africa, but the hijacking of the Faina has drawn the most international concern because of its dangerous cargo - 33 tanks and other heavy weapons.

The threat by the pirates on the Faina was unusual.

Pressure

Pirates operating off Somalia rarely harm their hostages, instead holding out for a ransom that often exceeds $1 million. But international pressure was mounting regarding the Faina hijacking, with forces from the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (Nato) planning to deploy.

"We held a consultative meeting for more than three hours today and decided to blow up the ship and its cargo - us included - if the ship owners did not meet our ransom demand," Sugule Ali said in an interview by satellite telephone on board the ship late on Friday.

He gave the shipowners until Monday night to pay. Ali had said on Thursday he was willing to negotiate the ransom demand of $20 million, after nearly two weeks of insisting they would never lower the price. "Either we achieve our goal and get the ransom or perish along with the ship, its crew and cargo," Ali said.

There are 20 Ukrainian, Latvian and Russian crew members on board. The ship's Russian captain died of a heart condition soon after the hijacking nearly two weeks ago, officials in Moscow say.

The US Navy, which has six warships surrounding the Faina off the central coast of Somalia, had no comment on the pirates' threat Friday, said Lieutenant Nate Christensen, a spokesman for the 5th Fleet, which is based in Bahrain and helps monitor Somalia's coast.

Momentum has been growing for co-ordinated international action against the pirate menace.

Nato ministers agreed on Thursday that they would have seven ships in the area within two weeks. In addition to the six US warships near the Faina, helicopters buzz overhead daily.

Russia also announced it would co-operate with the West in the fight, and several European countries have said they will launch an anti-piracy patrol.

The UN Security Council this week called on countries to send naval ships and military aircraft, and US warships are being diverted from counterterrorism duties.

Ukrainian Defence Minister Yuriy Yekhanurov said earlier that Ukraine does not want foreign countries to use power to take the ship. Most of the crew members aboard the Faina are Ukrainian.

Statement

Vessel not greek: athens

Authorities in Athens denied yesterday that a ship reported to have been seized by pirates off the coast of Somalia had any connection with Greece.

Earlier a piracy surveillance centre in Malaysia had reported that Somali pirates had taken over a Greek tanker and separately attacked a ship chartered by the World Food Programme.

The International Maritime Bureau's (IMB) Piracy Reporting Centre in Kuala Lumpur, said that pirates boarded a Greek chemical tanker flying the Panamanian flag on Friday.

But the Greek merchant marine ministry said that it had no knowledge of any recent act of piracy against a vessel linked to Greek interests or carrying Greek nationals. The ministry said it had been told orally on Friday by a company based in the Marshall Islands that a Panamanian-flagged ship, carrying 17 Georgians and three Spaniards had been boarded by pirates in the Gulf of Aden. "This ship is not linked to Greek interests, we are not concerned with it," said a spokesman for the ministry's operations centre. Given how complicated arrangements in the world of merchant shipping could be "we cannot completely rule out Greek involvement in the company that owns the ship, but for us it is not the case of a Greek vessel," the spokesman said.