$1.5m ransom demanded for missing ship - report

Pirates have reportedly demanded $1.5 million in ransom for the Maltese-flagged Arctic Sea, as Nato joined the search for the missing ship.

The figure was quoted by the website of Financial Times Deutschland, although news agency AFP said the source was not cited.

Neither did the website say whether the ransom was for the 15-strong crew to be freed or for the 3,988-tonne Russian-owned, Maltese-registered cargo ship itself.

Last Saturday the Malta Maritime Authority said Malta had joined forces with Sweden and Finland to investigate the "alleged aggravated extortion and hijacking" of the ship.

News of the ransom first broke that day when AFP said Finnish police had confirmed that money had been demanded from the Finnish owners of the ship, Solchart Management. AFP said news of the ransom demand augured well for the Russian crew.

"This is the first positive sign that there are intentions to bring back the crew," it quoted Russian maritime expert Mikhail Voitenko as saying.

Similarly, anti-Kremlin political commentator and Moscow radio host Yulia Latynia said: "It appears they are looking for a way out of the situation and it appears to mean that the crew will return safe and sound."

Yesterday, Russia's ambassador to Nato, Dmitry Rogozin, told state-run Vesti TV that an operation to find the ship was "in full swing and it's unfolding positively".

The ship, carrying more than €1 million worth of sawn timber, left Finland on July 23. It was expected at the Algerian port of Bejaia on August 4, but never made it.

A day after it left port, the ship was allegedly hijacked off Sweden. The MMA said several hooded and armed people in police uniforms arrived on a dinghy and boarded the ship in the middle of the night. It said crew members had been tied, gagged and blindfolded, with some seriously injured and claiming to have been aggressively questioned about drug trafficking. They were later released and locked in cabins until the men had rummaged through the vessel.

Four days later, on July 28, British coastguards made routine radio contact with the ship as it passed through the English Channel. The last signal was received from the ship two days later off north-western France. The following day Swedish police contacted the ship in the last known exchange, but details have not been revealed.