Nairobi - Somali pirates are leaving a Ukrainian ship laden with weapons as they prepare to release it, a maritime group said Thursday.

The MV Faina was seized off the coast of Somalia in September and is carrying a cargo of 33 T-72 tanks and other armaments.

"We know now they are leaving the ship in small groups," Andrew Mwangura, of the Kenya-based East African Seafarers' Assistance Programme, told Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa.

A ransom of around 3.5 million dollars is believed to have been paid to release the ship after months of complicated negotiations and several false dawns.

The MV Faina was one of two high-profile ships - the other being a Saudi supertanker carrying over 100 million dollars worth of oil - seized during a surge in piracy in the second half of 2007.

US warships surrounded the ship at her mooring off Somalia amid concern the weapons could be used by Islamists waging a bloody insurgency on land.

Controversy also surrounds the cargo of the MV Faina, which was bound for the Kenyan port of Mombasa.

Kenya's government say that the arms shipment is theirs, but the ship's manifest seems to suggest the tanks and weapons are in fact bound for South Sudan.

Piracy off the coast of Somalia peaked late last year. A total of over 40 ships were seized last year, bringing in ransoms estimated at 30 million dollars.

The presence of international warships has reduced the number of hijackings from last year, but the area remains a dangerous place.

A total of 15 attacks have taken place since January 1, the latest involving the successful hijacking of German-owned LPG tanker, the MV Longchamp.

Once the MV Faina is freed, around 10 ships and 200 crew will remain in pirate hands. (dpa)