Somali pirates are becoming more brazen and keeping ahead of the international naval force seeking to end their high seas marauding, a top UN official said yesterday.

The pirates have kidnapped almost 100 new crew and passengers from ships in less than a month and there are now at least 438 seafarers and 20 ships held by bandits, according to latest International Maritime Organisation figures.

The sea gangs may now be making hundreds of millions of dollars a year from ransoms, Lynn Pascoe, UN secretary general for political affairs, told the UN Security Council.

“Piracy is a menace that is outpacing efforts by the international community to stem it,” he said, highlighting the latest “appalling” hijack figures.

“The pirates are also taking greater risks and seeking higher ransoms,” he added.

Ms Pascoe said a Spanish warship escorting a food supply vessel was “brazenly” attacked on Saturday. The pirates used a freighter they had seized only a month earlier.

The pirates also announced on Saturday that they had received a record nine-million-dollar ransom for a South Korean supertanker.

At the same time, Ms Pascoe added, the international navy forces off the Somalia coast “have disrupted more pirate operations and protected more vessels than ever before”.

The UN official said international forces had to deter the pirates, secure the shipping lanes and step up development in conflict-stricken Somalia.

“As long as piracy is so lucrative, with ransom payments adding up to tens of millions if not hundreds of millions of dollars, and other economic incentives so bleak, the incentives are obvious,” he said.