The Somali pirates who hijacked a Kenyan-registered vessel laden with food aid off the northeastern coast of Somalia two months ago are still holding the hostages and the food aid, UN officials said here Friday.

"We received a request through a third party to change the port of discharge," Leo van de Velden, WFP's Somalia deputy director said, renewing calls for the release of the 10 crew members who are mainly from Kenya.

The hijackers had wanted the 850 tons of rice, donated by Germany and Japan, to be distributed in the central region of Somalia to their clan members.

"We would like to hope that the ship goes to Bosasso, that the food aid is unloaded and given to the authorities and distributed to the people who need it with our assistance," Velden said.

The WFP has since sent more ships to Somalia to replace the hijacked food aid and to continue food distribution in the war- torn country, where millions of people rely on food aid.

The MV Semlow was hijacked on June 27 between Haradhere and Hobyo, some 400 km northeast of the capital, Mogadishu, on its way to the Gulf of Aden port of Bossaso, in the self-declared autonomous region of Puntland.

The vessel had been chartered by the WFP to deliver some 850 tons of rice to survivors of the 26 December Indian Ocean tsunami, which devastated much of the country's northeastern coastline.

Velden has urged Kenya to exert pressure on the Somali government to seek for the release of the hostages held in the lawless Horn of Africa nation.

He said there should be no further delay in the release of the hijacked ship and its crew following the agreement between the concerned parties.

Despite the ship capture, WFP official said it is sending some shipments of food to Somalia to ensure that its operations in the country would continue and the hungry would not suffer because of the hijacking.

The WFP hijacking was the sixth reported piracy incident in Somali waters since March, including one in early June in which a US naval destroyer intervened to save a vessel under attack.

Source: Xinhua