Hijacked on November 29 with a crew of 16 Filipinos, nine Greeks, two Ukrainians and a Romanian, the Greek-flagged Maran Centaurus -- a very large crude carrier -- is now anchored off the pirate lair of Haradhere, they said.

"We are getting some information that foreign forces are planning to free the ship by force but we warn against any such endeavour because it will have very unpleasant consequences," a pirate who gave his name as Abdi Hasan said.

"There are more than 50 men on board the tanker now and we are prepared resist any rescue attempt," he told AFP by phone from Haradhere.

The 1995-built supertanker, the second largest vessel ever seized by Somali pirates, is carrying crude oil and could cause environmental damage of historic proportions if it ran aground or armed fighting erupted on board.

On December 2, the 332-metre (1,000-foot) -long ship was brought to the pirate base of Hobyo but has subsequently been moved further south to Harardhere, local fishermen said.

"The big ship is now close to the coast of Harardhere and there are many heavily-armed pirates shuttling between the ship and the shore all the time," Osmail Abdullahi Togane, one of the fishermen, said.

"They are guarding this ship more than others, I think they fear attacks by the warship that can be seen patrolling further out in the ocean," he said.

In a statement issued on Wednesday the operators and managers of the hijacked tanker, Maran Tankers Management Inc, said they "remain totally committed to ensuring the safety of those on board and their speedy release."

"Contacts have started between those holding the ship and the people representing the owners in an effort to expedite the release of the ship," Abdi Yare, another Harardhere-based pirate, told AFP.

"I don't have details of the discussions right now but the pirates' only demand is a ransom. It's all about the ransom," he said.

The ship, the first known case of Greek-flagged ship being hijacked, was headed from Saudi Arabia to the United States with an estimated 20 million dollars worth of crude oil.

The 300,000-tonne (deadweight) supertanker, hijacked by nine pirates, is easy prey for pirates equipped with fast skiffs and grapnels as it moves slowly cannot outmanoeuvre the nimble sea-robbers and has a low freeboard.

Supertankers such as these, with less than 30 crew on a ship a third of a kilometre long, cruise on auto-pilot most of the time and would rarely have anybody keeping watch on deck at night.

Pirates from the town of Harardhere last year nabbed another VLCC, the saudi-owned Sirius Star, in what was then their biggest ever catch.

According to sources close to the negotiations for its release -- which occurred in January 2009 -- and to pirates, a total of nearly eight million dollars was paid in ransom money.

Since foreign navies deployed to protect the crucial maritime choking point of the Gulf of Aden, Somalia sea bandits have ventured deeper into the Indian Ocean, seizing ships as far east as the Seychelles and beyond.

According to Ecoterra International, an environmentalist organisation moniroting illegal maritime activities in the region, pirates currently hold at least 11 ships and close to 300 seamen.

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