The Piracy Reporting Centre of the International Maritime Bureau said the number of reported attacks worldwide decreased to 127 from 182 in the same period in 2004, with 176 crew taken hostage and 12 crew kidnapped.

The notorious Malacca Strait between Indonesia and Malaysia - used by some 50,000 ships a year carrying a third of world trade - enjoyed a brief respite in the two months after the December 26 tsunamis with not a single attack reported.

However, the IMB said that waters off Indonesia continued to be the world's most dangerous - recording 42 attacks or one third of the world's total - and that renewed incidents in the strait have also become increasingly violent.

"Violence and intimidation of crew continues to be a hallmark of these attacks, with many of the pirates armed with guns and knives," it said of attacks near Indonesia's coast.

"Since the end of February 2005, eight attacks have been reported in the Malacca Strait with increasing violence and innocent crew being abducted for ransom."

The report noted that concern over piracy in the Malacca Strait has prompted security firms based in Singapore to offer armed escorts, but said the use of private companies could raise even more problems.

Shipowners are typically reluctant to have armed personnel on board ships, and some countries such as Malaysia have said they consider armed escorts in their waters illegal.

"Private armed response will raise the level of arms used by both sides and make these waters an even more dangerous place," said the report.

The International Maritime Bureau (IMB) said the coast of Somalia, which had seen few attacks for almost two years, suffered a resurgence of assaults by pirates with guns and grenades, with eight incidents recorded in the past three months.

In one incident pirates lured a vessel by firing off distress flares, while in four other attacks the crew were held hostage for ransom.

"Pirates operating off Somalia have become increasingly audacious," IMB director Pottengal Mukundan said in a statement.

"Their demands for ransom are higher than ever before and negotiations for the release of the vessel and crew can become difficult and prolonged."

The World Food Programme earlier this month threatened to halt food distribution to two areas of Somalia unless a hijacked UN-chartered vessel carrying aid to Somali tsunami victims is released soon.

The ship was seized about 300 kilometers (185 miles) northeast of Mogadishu on June 27.

The hijackers have several times demanded a 500,000-dollar ransom for their release but both the WFP and the owners have refused.

Elsewhere in the report, the London-based IMB identified increasing attacks off Iraq's southern Basra oil terminal as a "new and worrying trend."

In spite of coalition naval ships being close by, there had been four serious incidents since April 22, it said.

Another area of concern was around Bonny River in Nigeria, where four attacks have been recorded since May 24 thbis year.

The IMB said the anchorages of Jakarta and Balikpapan in Indonesia and Chittagong in Bangladesh had also suffered more attacks.

All rights reserved. � 2005 Agence France-Presse. Sections of the information displayed on this page (dispatches, photographs, logos) are protected by intellectual property rights owned by Agence France-Presse. As a consequence, you may not copy, reproduce, modify, transmit, publish, display or in any way commercially exploit any of the content of this section without the prior written consent of Agence France-Presse.

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