Vice Admiral William Gortney, commander of the US Fifth Fleet based in Bahrain, said the State Department was near an agreement with an unidentified country in the region to take captured pirates into custody and try them.

"We have to make it unpleasant to be a pirate," Gortney told reporters here. "That's where we capture them, and try them and hold them accountable for their actions if they are found guilty."

A surge of piracy since last August has drawn naval vessels from 14 countries to the Gulf of Aden to protect shipping, but attacks on ships and hostage takings have continued.

While there have been only four successful piracies in the past six weeks thanks to defensive measures adopted, Gortney said the number of unsuccessful attacks continues to average 12 to 14 a month.

One reason for the continued attacks is that pirates have not feared capture. With only a weak transitional government in impoverished and unstable Somalia, the US and other navies have had nowhere to take captured pirates. The issue of jurisdiction for the pirates remains a thorny one.

As a result, Gortney's orders to the US navy ships until now have been to "disrupt and deter but not capture," he said.

"Once we get the authorities that we need there and a place to take them, then ... my orders will change to disrupt, deter and capture."

A UN Security Council resolution passed last month authorized countries to take "all necessary means" to suppress acts of piracy and armed robbery at sea.

Gortney said air strikes on pirate camps in Somalia were problematic because of the difficulty of preventing civilian casualties.

But he said, "We are going to aggressively go after the pirates that are conducting pirate activities. It's going to be a mixture of surveillance and rapid action."

He said navy ships will begin arresting people in skiffs with "pirate paraphernalia," like weapons and ladders.

Gortney would not identify the country currently in negotiations with the State Department, but he said he expected an agreement this week or next week. "We're very, very close," he said.

Gortney recently established a naval task force to focus on counter-piracy operations.

He said Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Britain, Pakistan and Australia had expressed interest in joining the task force.

Russia and China, which also have ships in the region, have been operating on their own while sharing information via email and radio transmissions with the Americans, he said.

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