MOGADISHU, Nov 20: Somali pirates who hijacked Saudi oil super-tanker Sirius Star demanded $25 million in ransom on Thursday and set a 10-day deadline amid mounting calls for tougher action on sea bandits.

“We are demanding 25 million dollars (20 million euros) from the Saudi owners of the tanker. We do not want long-term discussions to resolve the matter,” a pirate who identified himself as Mohamed Said told AFP from the ship, now anchored at the Somali pirate lair of Harardhere.

“The Saudis have 10 days to comply, otherwise we will take action that could be disastrous,” Said added, without elaborating.

Seized at the weekend in the Indian Ocean some 500 miles off the coast of Kenya, the super-tanker was loaded to capacity with two million barrels of oil and the biggest vessel to be seized by pirates so far.

In a sign of growing international frustration over a situation described by the International Maritime Bureau (IBM) as “out of control,” Russia announced it would send more warships to combat piracy in the waters around Somalia.

Admiral Vladimir Vysotsky, the top commander of the Russian navy, said: “After the Neustrashimy (Fearless), ships from other fleets of the Russian navy will head to the region,” referring to a frigate sent to the area in September.

“This is needed because of the situation that has developed in the vicinity of the Horn of Africa and the Gulf of Aden, where Somali pirates have sharply increased their activities,” he said.

Russia’s ambassador to Nato, Dmitry Rogozin, meanwhile called for an international ground military operation in the region to crush piracy. “It’s up to the European Union, Nato and others to launch a coastal land operation to eliminate the pirates,” Rogozin told AFP, insisting that “naval action alone will not be enough to liquidate the threat of piracy”.

In London, Foreign Secretary David Miliband urged the world to firmly fight the “scourge of hostage taking”, saying Britain was “extremely concerned by the situation in the Gulf of Aden off Somalia”.Somali Prime Minister Nur Hassan Hussein warned that piracy will rage unless the world helps restore a functional government in Somalia, which collapsed after the 1991 ouster of dictator Mohamed Siad Barre.

“The problems of pirates will only be resolved when the international community helps Somalia to stand on her feet,” Hussein told reporters in Mogadishu.

The Somali government signed multi-million dollar deals with French military firm Secopex in 2008 and US firm Topcat Marine Security Inc in 2005 to combat piracy off its coast, but of the two firms never showed up.

Saudi Arabia’s foreign minister, Prince Saud Al-Faisal said on Wednesday that the ship’s owners were in talks with the pirates, but the company that operated the vessel had remained tight-lipped about the claims of negotiations.

Meanwhile, India is planning to deploy up to four ships in the Gulf of Aden to protect its commercial ships from pirates operating in the region.

India has already positioned its warship — INS Tabar — off the Somali coast, which has taken action against the pirates thrice during the last two weeks.

In such action on Tuesday, the Indian warship sank a ‘mother ship’ of the pirates while two speed boats fled away.—Agencies