Rare capture in 1999 of a gang of Indonesian pirates

Delegates from law enforcement agencies and shipping countries around the world are meeting in Kuala Lumpur to discuss how to tackle the problem.

Many delegates have said there needs to be far greater co-operation between governments and law enforcement agencies to co-ordinate patrols and intelligence efforts to stop the pirates.

A senior Indonesian navy official says his government is doing what it can to halt the attacks, deploying about 40 navy ships in the area around the Straits of Malacca.

Danger spots - attacks in 2000

Indonesia 119 Malacca Strait 75 Bangladesh 55 India 35 Ecuador 14

Source IMB

But he says monitoring all shipping passing through Indonesian waters is a vast task and he speculated that some of the attacks are the work of organised crime syndicates.

Meanwhile, the Malaysian authorities have reported that in recent days pirates have kidnapped the captain of an Indonesian vessel.

A Malaysian ship has also just been attacked in waters off the coast of Borneo.