At the same time, China's transport ministry said a Singapore-flagged cargo ship with 19 Chinese crew hijacked in June had been "rescued" from pirates.

The Samho Dream "was freed this morning after the payment of nine million dollars to my colleagues," one of the pirates told AFP by telephone.

"The money was dropped by helicopter and they (the pirates) are in the process of sharing it," Abdi Yare said from the port of Hobyo.

Other sources in Hobyo, now the main lair of pirates preying on merchant ships in the Gulf of Aden and the Indian Ocean, confirmed the sum, which equals or exceeds the largest ransoms paid previously.

The 300,000 tonne Samho Dream was seized in the Indian Ocean in April as it was heading fully laden from Iraq to the US state of Louisiana with a crew of 19 Filipinos and five South Koreans.

The Chinese transport ministry said meanwhile that the MV Golden Blessing, a petroleum and chemical tanker, and its crew "were rescued safely at 1:03 am Beijing time (1703 GMT Friday)."

The Golden Blessing was travelling to India from Saudi Arabia when it was hijacked in late June, maritime authorities said at the time. It had been held at Qandala in northern Somalia's autonomous region of Puntland.

"The 19 Chinese crew are safe. At present, the Golden Blessing is heading to safe waters under Chinese naval escort," the ministry said.

The statement did not say how the ship had been rescued, or whether anyone was arrested in the process. Calls to the transport ministry went unanswered.

The Ecoterra association, which specialises in cases of piracy, said a ransom had been paid. Another source put it at several million dollars.

A spokesman for Golden Pacific International Holdings, which owns the ship, declined to comment when asked by AFP about the rescue.

Singapore maritime authorities said in June that the ship had been chartered by Shanghai Dingheng Shipping Company Ltd.

Heavily armed pirates using speedboats operating from lawless Somalia have been attacking ships over a vast area despite the presence of foreign naval forces for several years.

They sometimes hold vessels for weeks before releasing them for large ransoms paid by governments or shipowners.

The biggest sums paid previously were also for the release of supertankers.

Between three and eight million dollars were paid to free the Sirius Star in January 2009, and between 5.5 million and nine million for the Maran Centaurus a year later, according to sources.

In October 2009, 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.

Dozens of warships from navies around the world now patrol the shipping lanes against pirates off Somalia's coast and into the Gulf of Aden. China has been active since the end of 2008.

A UN report this week reported 37 successful ship hijackings in the first 10 months of 2010, up from 33 in the same period of 2009, amid signs that "the level of violence employed by the pirates has increased."

More than 130 suspected Somali pirates, brought in mainly by foreign navies deployed off Somalia since 2008, are being held in Kenyan prisons and dozens have been sentenced to jail terms, but successful prosecutions are difficult.

The UN Security Council could pass a new resolution on piracy this month.

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