There has been no ransom demand made for the abducted sailors of Malaspina Castle, whose crew has 16 Bulgarian mariners, Foreign Ministry spokesperson Dragovest Goranov told the Bulgarian National Television on April 7 2009.

The 32 000-ton Malaspina Castle, a British-owned cargo ship sailing under Panama's flag, was attacked on April 6 in the Gulf of Aden, according to reports. The ship is currently sailing towards the northern shores of Somalia and is constantly tracked by satellites.

Sixteen of the sailors on board the ship are Bulgarian, Bulgarian Maritime Administration said, without disclosing any names.

Late on April 6, Bulgarian President Georgi Purvanov, now in Istanbul, asked for help from United States president Barack Obama and Spanish prime minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero. Purvanov said that the European Union and Nato must make a bigger effort to combat piracy around the coast of Somalia and to seek out and free the captured vessel and its crew.

Bulgarian diplomatic missions in the region have also been mobilised to work on the matter, Goranov said. Bulgaria's Foreign Ministry is cooperating with its counterparts in Romania and Ukraine, two nations who also have mariners amongst the kidnapped on board the ship.

Malaspina Castle was the fifth ship that was attacked and captured in the space of two days off the Somali coast despite augmented international naval patrols along main shipping lanes.

She has a crew of 24, from Russia, Ukraine, Bulgaria and the Philippines. For the moment, all sailors on board are believed to be alive and well, the Times of London said. Reports claim that Somali pirates are now holding more than 15 vessels with about 250 crew members for ransom.