Alerted by a distress call, the Italian navy destroyer put itself between the ships and a group of pirate "fast boats", with all vessels using water hoses to repel the pirates.

The Italian warship, Luigi Durand de la Penne, also used its helicopter against the pirates, dispersing their attack, a NATO official said.

"This is probably the biggest multiple, coordinated attack we've seen," the official said, adding that more than 12 pirate boats were involved, perhaps as many as 20.

"There were so many of them, that it was more important to protect the motor vessels than to go after these dispersing boats," the official said, on the sidelines of talks between NATO foreign ministers in Brussels.

"These attacks are more and more brazen," he said, adding: "The bottom line is: this is a busy part of the world."

The vessels under threat were the Hambourg Star, flagged out of Liberia, the Hong Kong registered Overseas Hercules, Iranian flagged Iran Esteghlal, the Sea Queen from Singapore, and the Alexander Sibum flagged in Antigua and Barbuda.

NATO has four ships -- from Britain, Greece, Italy and Turkey -- on patrol in the waters off Somalia, with two protecting UN food aid convoys to the strife-torn Horn of Africa country.

The mission, NATO's first-ever against pirates, is commanded from Naples, southern Italy. It will end in mid-December when a bigger European Union operation -- dubbed Atalanta -- is to be put in place.

Somalia's Gulf of Aden and Indian Ocean waters have seen around 100 vessels attacked this year. The escalation threatens to choke one of the world's busiest maritime routes.

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