The MV Golden Blessing, a petroleum and chemical tanker, was travelling to India from Saudi Arabia when it was hijacked. The shipowner said the crew was reported to be safe.

The European Union's anti-piracy taskforce said a German helicopter sent to survey the area had reported "sighting suspected pirates" on board the 14,445-tonne ship about 60 nautical miles off northern Somalia.

"The vessel is under pirate control but remains unmoving at present," the EU naval force said in a statement, adding there were no reports of injuries.

An employee of Golden Pacific International Holdings, which owns the ship, told AFP that the company was in contact with the crew.

"The crew so far is safe," said the staff member, who asked not to be named.

He added no ransom demand had been made so far.

Rescue efforts had begun, the China Marine Rescue Centre said on its website, but gave no further details.

Singapore maritime authorities said the ship had been chartered to Shanghai Dingheng Shipping Co Ltd, adding they were closely monitoring the situation.

Heavily armed pirates using speedboats operate in the Gulf of Aden where they prey on ships, sometimes holding vessels for weeks before releasing them for large ransoms paid by governments or ship-owners.

In October, a Chinese cargo ship called the Dexinhai with 25 crew members on board was captured by pirates northeast of the Seychelles as it was sailing to India from South Africa.

The vessel was held on the Somali coast and was only recovered at the end of December following the payment of a 3.5-million-dollar ransom.

China has been active in international anti-piracy efforts in the Gulf of Aden since the end of 2008, sending at least four flotillas there.

Last December, Yin Zhuo, an admiral and senior researcher at the navy's Equipment Research Centre, even proposed setting up a permanent base to support ships on anti-piracy missions in the gulf.

Unofficial figures show that 2009 was the most prolific year yet for Somali pirates, with more than 200 attacks -- including 68 successful hijackings -- and a total in ransoms believed to exceed 50 million dollars.

There were another 35 attempts between January and March this year, according to the International Maritime Bureau (IMB), a decline of 27 from the same period last year.

But Pottengal Mukundan, head of the IMB, has said he fears there will be even more hijackings this year than in the past, noting that pirates are now operating over a wider area than they have before.

Earlier this month, a Dutch court sentenced five Somali pirates, the first to stand trial in Europe, to five years in prison for attacking a Dutch Antilles-flagged ship last year.

Some 110 pirates have already been tried in Kenya. Six Somali pirates were condemned to death in Yemen in May for an attempted hijacking of a Yemeni oil tanker during which two people died.

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