Egypt holds talks on stopping piracy

CAIRO - Worried that piracy could scare ships away from the Suez Canal, Egypt yesterday held emergency talks with nations bordering the Red Sea on how to stop brazen Somali gunmen from hijacking oil tankers and other vessels.

The Cairo meeting was called amid concerns that lawlessness was disrupting sea lanes and creating panic that might force shipping companies to avoid sailing the Red Sea region. Such a scenario would hurt the Egyptian economy, which relies on more than $5 billion a year in fees collected from vessels passing through the Suez Canal.

The scourge of pirates comes as the Middle East is increasingly sensitive to the global financial crisis, which has pushed oil below $50 a barrel and is depressing markets and affecting trade, real estate and other businesses.

Diplomats from Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Yemen, Sudan and Jordan balanced their concerns over chaos on the seas with assurances to respect the sovereignty of the troubled government of Somalia, a country in the Horn of Africa scarred by civil war.

A statement released after yesterday's meeting did not suggest the delegates had come up with any immediate solutions. It said the diplomats "expressed the anxiety of Arab states overlooking the Red Sea toward the growth of the phenomenon of piracy. . . . Piracy off the Somali coast is one of the consequences of the deterioration of the political, security and humanitarian situation in Somalia."

Egyptian Foreign Ministry spokesman Hossam Zaki was quoted by the state news agency as saying: "All options are open." He added that Egypt's national security agencies will decide "whether a diplomatic and political solution would be preferred."

The Red Sea nations also faced the prospect of how to end a standoff with pirates who on Saturday captured a 1,000-foot tanker carrying $100 million worth of Saudi crude. The bandits anchored the ship off the Somali coast and are holding the crew hostage.