New Delhi - India is working on a policy for cooperation between world navies to deal with the increasing threat of piracy on the high seas, Defence Minister AK Antony said Friday.

Sea piracy has been a cause of growing concern for India with Somalian pirates holding hostage 18 Indian sailors on board a Japanese-owned merchant vessel for more than six weeks.

The International Maritime Bureau said 30 ships have been hijacked for ransom off Somalia in 2008.

"We cannot allow the situation to continue," Antony was quoted as saying by the PTI news agency after a conference of naval commanders in New Delhi. "There should be a solution to this. We must put a stop to this kind of piracy, so India is very much concerned."

"Through diplomatic channels, we are working on its and we are trying to find a procedure so that important navies of the world can act together in that area," Antony said, referring to the African coast.

Despite the presence of 69 warships of the United States, Russia, Canada, Britain and France along the African coast, pirates continued to attack ships sailing through the area, Antony said. "Of late, ships from the European Union have also joined other warships there," he said.

Antony said India had already sent a warship to the region for anti-piracy patrols.

Naval chief Admiral Suresh Mehta said India was coordinating with the navies of other concerned countries. "All navies wanting to patrol the African waters against pirates would have to work together," he said.

"We are some distance away, and we cannot keep a flotilla there forever," Mehta said, adding that an international anti-piracy agreement would help.

The navy chief said international maritime law authorized warships to take preventive action against pirates operating against any country in international waters.

"The restriction, however, is we cannot go into Somalian territorial waters because we do not have any arrangement with them," he said.

Families of the sailors who have been taken hostage have been demanding that the Indian government take steps to free their relatives. (dpa)