Brussels - The European Union's executive is to pledge at least 60 million euros (77.6 million dollars) to boost security and fight piracy in Somalia at a donor conference on Thursday, officials in Brussels said Wednesday.

"The European Commission will pledge at least 60 million euros to support Somalia's security institutions and the African Union Mission in Somalia (AMISOM)," a statement released in Brussels said.

The conference, to be held in Brussels, "is critical for tackling the root causes of piracy in the international waters off (Somalia's) coastline," the statement said.

The conference is to be co-chaired by United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon and African Union Chairman Jean Ping.

They are set to be joined by European Commission chief Jose Manuel Barroso, Somalia's President Sheikh Sharif Sheikh Ahmed, and the secretaries general of the Arab League and the Organization of the Islamic Conference, Amr Mussa and Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu.

The conference follows a UN plea for some 127 million euros (165 million dollars) to support the AU's peacekeeping mission in Somalia and Somalia's own security and police forces, together with some 35 million euros' worth of peacekeeping equipment.

It comes just two days after world piracy watchdog the International Maritime Bureau reported that pirate attacks launched from Somalia in the first three months of this year had increased tenfold compared with the same period in 2008.

In recent months, both the EU and NATO have sent flotillas of warships to Somali waters in a bid to protect aid convoys and merchant shipping passing through the Gulf of Aden.

However, diplomats and military commanders agree that the only way to solve the problem of piracy at sea will be to stabilize Somalia on land by rebuilding its law-enforcement system after almost two decades of anarchy. (dpa)