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NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) -- NATO agreed Thursday to send ships soon to protect vessels off Somalia's coast as bandits holding a Ukrainian ship laden with weapons softened their ransom demands in response to mounting international pressure.
A U.S. Navy officer watches the hijacked ship Faina off the coast of Somalia last week.
Other pirates in Somalia released 15 Filipino seamen and four other crewmen seized when a Japanese-operated chemical tanker was hijacked nearly two months ago, officials said Thursday. But pirates still hold 67 Filipino sailors on four different ships.
Despite his willingness to negotiate over the Ukrainian ship MV Faina, pirate spokesman Sugule Ali vowed to "cause a lot of problems for the world" if foreign powers used force to end the two-week standoff on the MV Faina.
"We are open for give-and-take negotiations," Ali told The Associated Press via satellite telephone, as a helicopter was heard buzzing overhead. He refused to offer further details or confirm another pirate's claim earlier this week that the ransom was down to US$8 million.
NATO defense ministers meeting in Hungary agreed to send ships to the area soon, a diplomat said in Budapest.
Momentum has been growing for coordinated international action against the increasing pirate menace after the seizure late last month of the Ukrainian MV Faina, which was carrying dozens of tanks and other heavy weapons.
Several European Union countries last week said they would launch an anti-piracy patrol, and Russia announced it would cooperate with the West on fighting the pirates. U.S. warships, meanwhile, are being diverted from counterterrorism duties to respond to the seafaring bandits.
The U.N. Security Council on Tuesday called on countries to send naval ships and military aircraft.
U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon told reporters Wednesday that "three million people are in danger of starving" because nearly 90 percent of the food that feeds them arrives by sea on World Food Program-contracted ships.
Somalia's government has given foreign powers the freedom to use force against the pirates, raising the stakes significantly. Russia, whose warship is not expected for several days, has used commando tactics to end several hostage situations on its own soil, but hundreds of hostages have died in those efforts.
Details of the NATO plan were not immediately available. The alliance has been running naval patrols in the Mediterranean Sea since 2001 to deter terrorists, and allied military experts have discussed setting up a similar operation off the Horn of Africa.
Earlier Thursday, the U.S. Navy said the 20 crew members aboard the MV Faina were living in fear.
"They want it to end peaceful and quickly," said Lt. Nathan Christensen, a spokesman from the U.S. 5th Fleet in Bahrain. He said the Navy was in regular radio contact with the crew.
But pirate spokesman Ali said the crew was holding up well.
"Their chef still prepares their food for them," he said. "They are healthy and have no worries. But of course their only worry is when they will gain their freedom. Their feeling is typically that of hostages -- no more, no less."
Ali originally said he would never lower the ransom demand from US$20 million. But he appeared to be more willing to talk as the standoff dragged on, with a half-dozen U.S. warships surrounding the vessel and a Russian tanker on the way.
The Faina's hijacking, the most high-profile off Somalia this year, illustrates the ability of pirates from a failed state to menace a key international shipping lane despite the deployment of warships by global powers. More than two dozen ships have been hijacked off Somalia's coast this year.
Somalia, a nation of around 8 million people, has not had a functioning government since warlords overthrew a dictator in 1991 and then turned on each other. A quarter of Somali children die before age 5 and nearly every public institution has collapsed. Fighting is a daily occurrence.
Islamic militants with ties to al Qaeda have been battling the government and its Ethiopian allies since the Islamists were driven from the capital in December 2006. The Islamists launched an insurgency that has killed thousands of civilians.
Copyright 2008 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
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