Fighting piracy

Ahead of a meeting of EU foreign and defense ministers in Brussels this Monday, Defense Minister Jung said he expected operation plans in the Indian Ocean to be changed.

Jung said the German government, which has three ships off the Horn of Africa, was seeking to extend and expand its parliamentary mandate for the "Atalanta" anti-piracy mission before the end of the current legislative period in September.

Because Somali pirates have moved further out to sea in their efforts to hijack commercial ships, the European Union has concluded that the international mission must respond accordingly by expanding its operations to include the Seychelles archipelago.

The Seychelles, located nearly 1,500 kilometers (900 miles) from the Somali coastline, have been the scene of several recent hijacking attempts.

Scope of patrols too limited

So far, anti-piracy operations have been focused on patrols in the Gulf of Aden and Somalia's littoral seas, where most of the hijackings have occurred.

The Somali government has also appealed for international help to establish a properly equipped coastguard, saying it needed to be able to patrol its own waters.

Speaking Monday at an international maritime conference on fighting piracy in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, Deputy Prime Minister Abdirahman Aden Ibbi told delegates that foreign naval patrols alone could not eradicate rampant piracy off the Somali coast.

Experts at the two-day conference are debating what to do with captured pirates and how best to protect commercial vessels and their crews.

gb/AP/AFP

Editor: Trinity Hartman