Two armed French Navy officers, taking part in the Atalante escorting and protection mission, supervise a convoy of cargo ships sailing through the Gulf of Aden, off Somalia's coasts, on Saturday. Photo taken from French anti-submarine frigate Jean de Vienne and released by the French Defense Ministry on Monday. [Agencies]

The US on Wednesday circulated a draft United Nations Security Council resolution on the issue. It proposes that all nations and regional groups cooperating with Somalia's government in the fight against piracy and armed robbery "may take all necessary measures ashore in Somalia".

The proposal marks one of the Bush administration's last major foreign policy initiatives.

If the US military gets involved, it would mark a dramatic turnabout from the US experience in Somalia in 1992-93 that culminated in a deadly military clash in Somalia's capital city of Mogadishu followed by a humiliating withdrawal of American forces.

Piracy off Somalia has intensified in recent months, with more attacks against a wider range of targets. Earlier this week, there was an unsuccessful assault on a cruise ship in the Gulf of Aden, which links the Mediterranean Sea, the Suez Canal and the Red Sea to the Indian Ocean.

In September, pirates seized a Ukrainian freighter loaded with 33 battle tanks and on Nov 15 they seized a Saudi oil tanker carrying $100 million worth of crude.

About 100 attacks on ships have been reported off the Somali coast this year. Forty vessels have been hijacked, with 14 still remaining in the hands of pirates along with over 250 crew members, according to maritime officials.

Professor Mervyn Frost, head of the War Studies Department at King's College London, said the Somali pirates had hijacked the global civil society.

"All states have a duty to contribute to the maintenance of global civil society. So the society of sovereign states needs to do something to rectify the situation," Frost told China Daily.

There must be some multilateral international policing in the region, he added.

There have been doubts over the effectiveness of the current EU naval mission, with some arguing that the root cause lies on the land and within the chaotic country.

"With little functioning government, long and isolated beaches and a population that is both desperate and used to war, Somalia is a perfect environment for piracy there," said a report, Piracy in Somalia, published by the London-based Royal Institute of International Affairs in October.

"Piracy is (only) a symptom of Somalia's domestic chaos," said Brigadier Rudi Wertheim, defense and military attach of the British Embassy in Beijing. The EU anti-piracy mission is headed by the UK.

However, Wertheim added that the symptom too needs to be cured. "If the piracy is not checked, then it is likely to grow as it has over the past few years," he added.

"I think Western nations would welcome a contribution from China," Wertheim added.

Somalia's domestic situation may get even worse, as roughly 3,000 Ethiopian peacekeepers are due to withdraw by the end of the year, leaving a security vacuum.

Somali President Abdullahi Yusuf's government wants a full-fledged UN peacekeeping force to replace a small AU mission that has been unable to stem the violence.

Agencies contributed to the story