China to send ships to tackle Somali piracy: report

BEIJING (Reuters) - China plans to send naval ships to the seas off Somalia to join a growing fleet of international warships fighting piracy area, an official paper said on Wednesday, quoting a military source.

Vice Foreign Minister He Yafei had told the United Nations that China was "seriously considering" the mission, which would be an unprecedented deployment of the country's navy, but the China Daily said it was already decided.

"There will be a significant peacekeeping operation," it quoted the unnamed source saying, but added he declined to specify its size.

China's Defense Ministry was not immediately available for comment.

Rampant piracy in the busy Gulf of Aden and Indian Ocean off Somalia has become a major headache as it pushes up insurance costs or forces ships to take alternative routes.

In the most ambitious raid the gangs, based along the lawless coast of fractured Somalia, hijacked a Saudi oil tanker with a cargo worth some $100 million.

The victims also include a Hong Kong-flagged ship with 25 crew and a Chinese fishing boat reported seized off Kenya, giving Beijing a more direct stake in controlling the problem.

NATO ships began anti-piracy operations off the Somali coast in late October, but they have failed to stop the hijackings, and other nations are now pitching in.

Somali Foreign Minister Ali Ahmed Jama welcomed China's participation in the fight against the pirates, and said the government would do its best to secure the release of captured Chinese sailors and vessels, Xinhua news agency reported.

Earlier this month a prominent Chinese military strategist, Major-General Jin Yinan, urged the government to send ships in comments reflecting debate about combating piracy in a country which has generally confined its navy to waters near home.

China says its increasingly high-tech military forces are purely for defensive purposes. It has traditionally kept troops close to home and out of international operations, reflecting a doctrine of non-interference in other nations' affairs.

But its growing wealth and influence have led to calls for it to take a greater role protecting world peace, even as Western nations fret about its increasing military power.

It is now involved in peacekeeping operations around the world including Haiti and Sudan's troubled Darfur region, and was praised in July by U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon for its contribution of both funds and forces.

At home there is also growing discussion about the need to safeguard national interests. The China Daily said joining the anti-piracy campaign would be an opportunity for the country's navy to "get in the thick of the action."

"Apart from fighting pirates, another key goal is to register the presence of the Chinese navy," naval research professor Li Jie told the paper.

(Reporting by Ben Blanchard and Emma Graham-Harrison; Editing by Nick Macfie)