"The Somali government did not talk to the U.S. Navy. The U.S. Navy has no agreement with the Somali government," said Lt. Commander Charlie Brown, spokesperson for the Bahrain-based fifth fleet which has already tracked Somali pirates in International waters in the Indian Ocean.

The State Department confirmed in a statement that no contracts or agreements had been negotiated, saying it had only held "diplomatic discussions with representatives from (the transitional government of Somalia) concerning a number of areas of possible cooperation, including anti-piracy efforts."

Ali Mohamed Gedi, Somalia's transitional prime minister, had earlier told reporters that he had reached a "milestone" agreement with the U.S. Navy to enforce security in his country's territorial waters, where pirates have operated with increasing impunity.

Somalia has been without a functioning central government for 15 years since warlords ousted former dictator Mohamed Siad Barre in 1991. Today it is riven by warring clans that have carved the country into rival fiefdoms, shattered infrastructure and blocked campaigns to deliver food aid and relief supplies.

An interim government was formed in 2004 but leaders have been loath to cooperate; lawlessness has allowed piracy to flourish in its shark-infested waters, which have become among the world's most dangerous.

According to a recent report by the International Maritime Bureau, pirate attacks off the eastern coast of Somalia surged from one in 2004 to 34 on commercial vessels between March 2005 and the end of January this year -- including two separate raids on U.N. World Food Program ships bearing food aid.

The report said that once vessels enter Somali waters, ships targeted by pirates have no legal recourse since "there is no national law enforcement structure in Somalia." An IMB official told the BBC they were "still trying to figure out" reasons for the influx, as global attacks dropped by 18 percent over the same period.

The U.S. Navy has already moved against pirates on three occasions this year during regular patrols in the northern Indian Ocean. Last month, destroyers fired on a suspected pirate vessel, killing one and wounding five; an additional ten suspected pirates were later caught and sent to Kenya to stand trial. In an April 4 attack, a group of gunmen boarded a South Korean boat, whose 25-man crew is still held hostage.

Ongoing insecurity in coastal waters has been particularly damaging to millions of Somalis who depend on international relief in times of crisis. After the second pirate seizure of a WFP food shipment last summer, in which a two-month supply of rice intended for Somali victims of the Asian tsunami was held for 100 days, aid officials decried the lack of authority in the country and called on lawmakers and activists "to intervene to end this ordeal peacefully, and no longer to stand passively by."

The situation has grown more urgent now that almost two million Somalis are on the brink of famine in what WFP head James Morris said was one of the worst droughts ever to hit East Africa.

Morris' assessment was echoed by Omar Abdul Haili, an International Committee of the Red Cross relief coordinator on the ground in southern Somalia, the epicenter of the crisis, who told the BBC that hundreds of thousands of people could die if they don't get food in the next two months, adding: "I've never seen it this bad."

The latest reports from the aid group Oxfam attest the situation is so grave there that some Somali children have resorted to drinking their own urine.

In a March 1 report to the U.N. Security Council, Secretary-General Kofi Annan said the threat of piracy has forced the WFP to re-route much of its relief supplies overland to southern Somalia through Kenya, at far greater cost.

Last week, the WFP said piracy and attacks by militia gangs continue to stem the supply of food aid. "Already some owners of the vessels we are chartering to transport food to Somalia have asked for armed security on ships bound for Somalia," said Deputy Country Director for Somalia Leo van der Velden following the latest attack on a WFP aid convoy.

At least six people are said to have been killed and three others injured April 11 when rival militia groups exchanged fire following a raid on the convoy. Van der Velden said food had been shipped from Mombasa, Kenya to a port near the Somali capital Mogadishu for transportation to Baidoa.

But difficulties persist on land as they do at sea; most key roads that cross the country are falling apart or have been destroyed by fighting, and banditry is rife nearly everywhere.

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