New Delhi - The Indian Navy has been given formal approval for "hot pursuit" of pirates in Somali waters and will be deploying another warship to tackle piracy in the region, officials and news reports said Friday.

The United Nations has recently authorized the Indian Navy to enter Somali territorial waters to take anti-piracy measures, a navy official said on condition of anonymity.

So far a UN resolution had restricted the hot pursuit permission to the navies of US and French, the CNN-IBN network reported.

"The Indian Navy and all other navies are mandated and required to take action to prevent piracy in international waters. That is what the law is," Indian Navy chief Admiral Sureesh Mehta told the news channel.

"When it comes to chasing pirates in territorial waters, then you need some different laws. In the case of Somalia, we also have this permission available to us," he added.

Unfettered access to Somali waters is expected to enable the Indian Navy to tackle piracy more aggressively, the report said.

The Indian navy is also planning to send up to four warships in the "pirate-infested" Gulf of Aden, news reports said.

On Wednesday the INS Tabar, an Indian warship patrolling waters off the Gulf of Aden, destroyed a pirate vessel in international waters south of Oman.

Another powerful warship will be reaching the Gulf of Aden by next week to carry out joint patrols with the INS Tabar, the Times of India daily reported.

India has made calls for greater cooperation between the foreign navies under the UN banner to protect merchant traffic on the sea route.

Incidents of piracy have increased off the Somali coast in the recent months with growing concern in India as many Indian crew members have been aboard hijacked ships.

The Stolt Valor, a Japanese-owned ship seized nearly two months ago with 18 Indian sailors aboard, was freed by Somali hijackers Sunday after its shipping company reportedly paid a ransom of 2.5 million dollars.

On Tuesday, Somali pirates seized two new ships including the MV Delight - which has seven Indians on the 25-member crew - after they hijacked the Saudi Arabian supertanker Sirius Star, which was carrying 100 million dollars of oil.

The International Maritime Bureau recently described the region as "the number one piracy danger zone" with 26 vessels hijacked and 537 crew members taken hostage by Somali pirates from July to September. (dpa)