Spain: All hands on deck

to end Playa de Bakio pirate siege.

Contact has been made with the boat and they look to be headed to Somali town of Gaan, about 50 kilometres (30 miles) from the southern town of Obbia.

Speaking in broken English on Spanish National Radio (RNE), a man who appeared to be one of the pirates said Monday they wanted "money," after snatching the phone from the boat's captain who had been contacted on board.

"I am the captain of the boat... we are all well and there is no problem, for the moment there is no problem," the skipper said in Spanish, before being interrupted by the pirate who said he was a member of a "Somalia militia."

Meanwhile, back in Spain...

Spain appealed to France, the United States and NATO on Monday for help in ending a crisis sparked when pirates seized 26 crew members of a Spanish fishing boat off the Somali coast.

The defence ministry said a Spanish military frigate was heading to the area off east Africa, where the pirates have demanded money for the release of the crew, a day after storming the vessel armed with grenade launchers. It said the ship would arrive in 24 to 36 hours.

Deputy Prime Minister Maria Teresa Fernandez de la Vega chaired a meeting of senior cabinet members, including Foreign Minister Miguel Angel Moratinos and Defence Minister Carme Chacon, to discuss the crisis.

"We have sought the help of France and the United States," two countries with a military presence in the area, a Spanish government spokesman said. The defence ministry "has already entered into contact with NATO authorities," the government said in a statement. It said Madrid is also in contact with "Britain and other allied countries and friends with a military presence in the area."

About Spain's newly sworn in and heavily pregnant defense minister Carme Chacon. She has zero experience in matters of military defense and is a lifelong committed pacifist.

I swear it's true.

But who cares about all that - not when you can fret about her state mandated maternity leave.

Words fail. Thank God the EU and the UN can be counted on to offer resolutions. Wastrels.

There was another attempted pirate attack on Monday. Interested?

On Monday, a major Japanese oil tanker was damaged and then chased by heavily armed pirates off the coasts of Somalia and Yemen but no one was injured, officials and crew members said.

The 150,000-tonne Japanese tanker Takayama, with a crew of 23, sustained damage but was able to sail on its own power after the attack at about 4:40 am (0140 GMT) Monday, its owner and operator Nippon Yusen Kaisha (NYK Line) said in Tokyo.

"We heard one big boom at first and then we were chased by the group for about an hour," a crew member told Japanese public broadcaster NHK. "We were attacked on the left and the right sides of the ship at least four times."

The attack occurred in international waters some 440 kilometres (275 miles) east of the Yemeni port of Aden, Japanese officials said.