Egypt seeks nations' help in stopping Somalian pirates

CAIRO, Egypt - Worried that pirates will scare ships away from the Suez Canal, a big revenue source, Egypt yesterday held talks with nations bordering the Red Sea on finding ways to stop Somalian gunmen from hijacking oil tankers and other vessels off the Horn of Africa.

The meeting in Cairo was part of a flurry of diplomatic activity yesterday targeting the piracy scourge:

The African Union urged the United Nations to quickly send peacekeepers to Somalia. The country is torn by militias and lacks a strong central government, making it easy for pirates to operate.

The U.N. Security Council voted unanimously to impose new sanctions - likely on Somalian individuals - aimed at reducing the arms flowing into that country.

The Bush administration imposed financial sanctions on three alleged leaders of an Islamic militia in Somalia.

The Cairo gathering was called amid concerns that the disruption and panic created by piracy in and near the Gulf of Aden, which leads to the Red Sea, will force shipping to avoid the region. That would hurt the Egyptian economy, which relies on $5 billion a year in fees collected from vessels passing through the Suez Canal, which connects the Red Sea to the Mediterranean.

The piracy crisis comes as the Middle East is under pressure from the global financial crisis, which has pushed oil below $50 a barrel and is affecting trade, real estate and other business. The strains could cause social unrest.

Diplomats from Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Yemen, Sudan and Jordan balanced their concerns over chaos on the seas with assurances to respect the sovereignty of the troubled government of Somalia.

A statement released after the meeting expressed "anxiety," but did not suggest the delegates had come up with any immediate solutions.

But Egyptian Foreign Ministry spokesman Hossam Zaki was quoted by the state news agency as saying: "All options are open."

Pirates have seized about 40 vessels this year, eight in the last two weeks alone, including a huge Saudi supertanker loaded with $100 million worth of crude oil. Several hundred crew of the hijacked ships are held by Somalian pirates.

Calling for U.N. peacekeepers, Jean Ping, chairman of the African Union Commission, said the increasing piracy could have "far-reaching consequences for [Somalia], the region and the larger international community."

The three Somalis targeted by the U.S. Treasury Department are suspected leaders of al-Shabaab, a group that the United States alleges is linked to al-Qaeda and uses violence to undermine Somalia's government.

Their financial assets in the United States, if any, will be frozen, and Americans are forbidden from conducting business transactions with them.

"We are not talking here about conventional pirates but about organized gangs who have a lot of money, weapons and demonstrate organizational abilities and good knowledge of ship technology that allow them to catch ships quickly," said Mohammed Abdel Salam, a national security expert with Al Ahram Center for Political and Strategic Studies.

An anti-piracy watchdog yesterday advocated more aggressive action against the bandits, noting with approval the sinking of a suspected pirate ship Tuesday by a patrolling Indian frigate.

"If all warships do this, it will be a strong deterrent. But if it's just a rare case, then it won't work," said Noel Choong, who heads the International Maritime Bureau's piracy reporting center in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

NATO warships that are patrolling work to prevent hijackings but are hampered by a lack of a mandate to bring the hijackers to justice. Many European countries also restrict how far their ships can go in engaging the pirates.