"The relevant Chinese departments are actively conducting rescue work," foreign ministry spokesman Qin Gang said, giving no further details. "We condemn all piracy and abduction at sea."

The boat, which belongs to the Tianjin Ocean Fishing Company, was carrying 15 sailors from China, four Vietnamese, three Filipinos, one Japanese and one from Taiwan, the official Xinhua news agency said earlier.

The agency reported the hijacking on Friday, saying a pirate leader had told a local radio station in Mogadishu the crew were unharmed.

But he warned that they would "be put before the law and punished accordingly" after claiming the boat was fishing off Somali territorial waters, according to Xinhua.

A source with the Chinese ministry of transport, however, insisted the ship was taken off the coast of neighbouring Kenya late on Thursday, local time, and that the pirates forced it to sail to Somalia, Xinhua said.

The report said the vessel was last week being held off the coast of Kismayu, a port city around 500 kilometres (300 miles) southwest of Mogadishu.

Piracy is rife and well organised along the coast of Somalia.

According to the International Maritime Bureau, 83 ships have been attacked off Somalia since January. Thirty-three were hijacked, with 12 vessels and more than 200 crew still in the hands of pirates.

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