SAN'A, Yemen (AP) — Somali pirates seized a tugboat operated by the French oil company Total and a Turkish cargo ship, as the UN anti-crime agency called for a special maritime police force for the insecure Gulf of Aden coastline.

Somali pirates have seized over 40 vessels off Somalia's 1,880-mile coastline this year.

Ukraine "hopes" Somali pirates will free the crew of a Ukrainian cargo ship, which they have held for almost three months, "by New Year", the Foreign Ministry said.

"We have finished talks over the crew's release," ministry spokesman Vasyl Kyrylych said today in remarks broadcast by private TV channel 5. "All measures for the release are being carried out."

The Faina, a Belize-flagged vessel, was seized on September 25, with a crew of 17 Ukrainians, three Russians and one Latvian. It was carrying at least 30 Soviet-designed T-72 tanks to Kenya. "The crew is in satisfactory health, although sailors are physically and emotionally tired," said Kyrylych.

The pirates, who originally demanded a $20 million ransom, are now seeking a $3 million ransom, according to Agence France- Presse.

Ukraine's Foreign Affairs Ministry declined to comment on paying a possible ransom.

Before the latest seizures, maritime officials say 14 remained in pirate hands — including a Saudi oil tanker carrying $100 million in crude and a Ukrainian ship loaded with tanks and heavy weapons. Also held are a total of more than 250 crew members.

Antonio Maria Costa, executive director of the Vienna-based UN Office on Drugs and Crime urged law enforcement officers to deploy on warships as "ship riders" to seize pirates and try them in the arresting officer's home country.

"Pirates cannot be keelhauled or forced to walk the plank, nor should they be dumped off the Somali coast. They need to be brought to justice," he said.

A similar approach has helped prosecute drug traffickers in the Caribbean, he added.

Costa said countries in the region — such as Djibouti, Kenya, Tanzania and Yemen — could sign special agreements empowering police officers to arrest pirates in the name of an officer's country, then escort them there to be charged and tried.

An official with the Yemen-based Total SA confirmed the latest hijacking, saying the seized tugboat had a crew of Indonesians and other nationalities and was on its way from the southern Yemeni port of Mukalla to Malaysia when it was seized.

The official spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the subject.

In Paris, Total spokesman Kevin Church said that a tugboat and a barge were hijacked but stressed that they were not Total's boats. They belong to a subcontractor, he said, and are not believed to be carrying oil.

The US Navy's Fifth Fleet could not confirm the tugboat seizure, but did say M/V Bosphorus Prodigy, owned by the Istanbul-based Isko Marine Company, had also been seized by pirates Tuesday, according spokesman Lt. Nathan Christensen.

The three-ton container ship is 330 feet long and carries the flag of Antigua-Barbuda. The company could not be reached for comment. Kenya's military chief, Gen. Jeremiah Kianga, said his country will increase patrols along its coastline because piracy off neighbouring Somalia has made business at Kenya's main port more expensive. Kenya's air force and navy will patrol only Kenyan territory and not enter Somali air space or waters, Kianga said.

"Regional co-operation is essential," Costa said. "A few years ago, piracy was a threat to the Straits of Malacca. By working together, Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore and Thailand managed to cut the number of attacks by more than half since 2004."

Costa also urged authorities to crack down on the Somali pirates' coastal bases, support networks and financial transactions.

"Somali pirates are in it for the money, so we should try to capture their treasure," Costa said. "Unlike buccaneers of old, Somali mafias are not burying their booty in the sand ... Pirates are increasingly working through intermediaries in financial centres. This is where we need to hit them."

The UN agency also urged shipping and insurance companies not to pay ransom, which Costa contends just encourages pirates to take hostages.

"They're beginning to affect global commerce," Deputy Undersecretary of the U.S. Navy Marshall Billingslea said yesterday in an interview with WUSA-TV, according to the Federal News Service. "They're beginning to affect the ability of shipping to move through the Suez Canal."

The UN is seeking more criminal prosecutions of pirates and those who give them aid, Costa said.

The Italian diplomat wants a regional law enforcement initiative that could prosecute the pirates in Kenyan, Tanzanian or Yemeni courts.

"Piracy is organised crime," said Costa, who runs the Vienna-based UNODC, which assists governments with technology and expertise to catch international money launderers. "These bandits can be defeated in the courts, the banks, the ports, as well as on the high seas."

UN Office on Drugs and Crime, www.unodc.org