'Eradicating' Pirates Is the Only Option: Saudi Minister

Saudi Arabia's foreign minister on Friday said the only way to deal with pirates like those holding his country's supertanker MV Sirius Star is "by eradicating" them.

The Sirius Star, with an oil cargo worth an estimated $100 million, was seized off the Kenyan coast Saturday with 25 crew members aboard.

Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Saud Al-Faisal said at Oslo news conference that piracy is "not something you can negotiate or justify in any way, means, or manner."

"Like terrorism, it is an evil that has to be eradicated. There is an international consensus toward endeavors to do just that," he said after meeting his Norwegian counterpart, Jonas Gahr Stoere.

Saud said the Saudi government was not and would not negotiate with pirates, but what the ship's owners did was up to them.

On Wednesday, Saud said in Rome that he knew the ship's owners, and confirmed that they were negotiating in that case.

AP Sirius Star 450 Super Tanker

However, in Oslo, he appeared to distance the government from any such negotiations, saying, "If the owners of the ship are doing it, we don't know about it and we don't encourage it at all."

Ship owners have often ended up paying ransoms for their ships, cargos and crew in past piracy cases.

Saud and Stoere both expressed a willingness to provide ships and support for an international task force to fight piracy in the Red Sea area, where more than 80 pirate attacks have been recorded this year.

© 2008 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.