Somali pirates who seized a UN- chartered ship carrying tsunami aid to Somalia almost two months ago have started unloading food from the boat, according to residents of Haradere in eastern Somalia.

The pirates, who have been demanding the 850 tons of rice intended for Somali tsunami victims in return for the release of the ship, reportedly started removing food from the vessel on Monday.

"They have been taking small amounts of food from the ship for the past three days," reports quoted Ahmed Abdi, clan elder as saying.

Abdi said the pirates have informed residents of the town that they have "permission" to remove the cargo.

Speaking in Mogadishu by radio, Abdi said that the hijackers are using "one small boat" to remove the rice, but could not estimate how much has been taken or say exactly what will happen to the food, which is being stored in a makeshift warehouse.

However, Abdi said the pirates told residents that at least some of the cargo will be used to repay local shopkeepers from whom they have been "borrowing" food, water and supplies during the ship's seven-week captivity.

The UN's World Food Program (WFP) said Thursday it cannot confirm these reports but said if they were true, it condemned the "looting" of the food aid.

"If this is true, we condemn it and we urge that the looting of food aid cease immediately," WFP spokesperson Peter Smerdon said in Nairobi.

"We again urge the immediate release of the ship, its crew and what is remaining of the cargo of food aid that was supposed to be given to Somalis in need," he said.

Weeks of talks have failed to secure the release of the ship and its crew.

A deal was reportedly done 10 days ago but last week, the pirates issued fresh demands, according to the director of the Mombasa-based Mokatu shipping agency, Karim Kudrati.

Another Haradere resident, radio operator Hassan Ibrahim, also said the hijackers are taking food from the MV Semlow, which was seized on June 27 en route from the Kenyan port of Mombasa to Bosasso in Somalia's north-east Puntland region.

"They have started taking the food. I don't know how much so far, but they say they will take it all," said Ibrahim.

Under the brokered agreement, the food was to be distributed to communities in central Somalia, including the home area of the pirates.

The MV Semlow was hijacked between Haradere and Hobyo, some 400 km northeast of the capital, Mogadishu, on its way to the Gulf of Aden port of Bosasso, in the self-declared autonomous region of Puntland.

Some 28,000 people who lost their homes and livelihoods when the tsunami struck last December are being fed by the UN.

Somalia is awash with some 60,000 militia men and has been without a functioning national government since 1991, which hampered relief efforts to tsunami victims.

Source: Xinhua