Kiev  - Relatives of a mostly-Ukrainian crew held hostage aboard a ship off the Somali coast are preparing to pay a ransom demanded by pirates, a crew spokeswoman told the Ukrainian Fakty newspaper on Tuesday.

Pirates aboard the MV Faina over the weekend displayed 18 Ukrainians, two Russians, and one Latvian sailor to US warships on station nearby off the north Somali coast, and photographs made public by the Americans seemed to show all the sailors in good health, said Olha Grizheva, mother of one of the hostages.

"We have the money to pay a ransom to bring them back home, we collected much of it in donations from ordinary people," Grizheva said. A "major political party" donated the remainer of the ransom, according to the article.

One member of the Faina's crew, a Russian, died of natural causes shortly after becoming a captive. One Ukrainian sailor was reportedly subsequently transfered to the Faina from a Greek cargo ship also captured by Somali pirates.

Ukrainian media reports have placed the ransom demanded by pirates controlling the Faina, its crew, and its cargo of 33 T-72 tanks among other war material at between 5 and 30 million dollars.

Nina Karpecheva, a Ukrainian government official, was in Kenya and with diplomats on the scene and in regular contact with pirate negotiators, the newspaper reported.

The actual size of the ransom to be paid for the Faina was a Ukrainian state secret, Fakty reported.

The NATO flotilla in the region has maintained a close watch on the Faina, but as yet has made no move to free the hostages by force.

A Russian warship, the frigate Neustrashimiy, was passing the Suez canal on Tuesday and would begin cooperative operations with the NATO anti-piracy squadron later in the week, Interfax reported.

Somali pirates last week released the crew of a South Korean ship seized in September. More than 200,000 civilian vessels pass the Horn of Africa every year, making the region a rich hunting ground for shore-based pirates.

Somalia's government has been unable to stamp out the pirates, who are usually supported by local warlords not loyal to the Mogadishu regime. Most cargo ships grabbed by pirates are quietly ransomed.

The Faina with its combat-ready cargo of tanks, salvo rocket launchers, armored personnel carriers, and munitions has however upped the stakes, with NATO concentrating an unprecedented number of warships in the vicinity, and pirates threatening to blow up the ship and its crew if western military forces attempt to recapture the vessel.

Piracy has surged off the coast of Somalia this year, with over 30 ships seized, as gunmen look to cash in on increasingly large ransoms.

The latest ship to be seized was a Philippine bulk carrier, hijacked Wednesday along with its crew of 21.

Somalia lies alongside the Gulf of Aden, which is part of the route linking the Indian Ocean with the Mediterranean Sea through the Red Sea and the Suez canal. (dpa)