Aid ships heading for the strife-torn Horn of Africa nation have become a magnet for pirates and international agencies have been demanding greater protection for several years.

At least 17 ships have been attacked along the 3,700 kilometre (2,300 mile) Somali coastline this year alone, including two cargo boats chartered by WFP, according to the International Maritime Organisation (IMO).

French President Nicolas Sarkozy offered to send a warship after chairing a UN Security Council meeting on Africa on Tuesday.

"France stands ready to ensure security for the assistance provided by the World Food Program in Somalia for a period of two months using naval military resources," the French leader told the Security Council. "I call on all those who wish to do so to join this initiative".

Speaking in Nairobi, WFP spokesman Marcus Prior told AFP the offer would provide "great protection against piracy in Somali waters" and that the agency was already in contact with France on details of the protection.

Somalia has been in the grip of near continual civil war since 2001. About 1.5 million of the 10 million population rely on humanitarian aid, according to the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation.

Because of the disastrous state of the country's roads and the civil unrest, aid organisations prefer to use boats and 80 percent of UN aid reaches the Somalia by sea.

But the cargo ships are a prime target for pirates, who operate high powered speed boats and carry heavy machine guns and rocket launchers.

In addition to profiteering from selling the food aid, the pirates demand ransoms to free the ships' crews or fishing and cruise vessels.

The crew of one of the WFP boats was held hostage for 45 days. On the other, a man was killed whilst attempting to beat off pirates boarding the boat.

In 2005 the WFP temporarily suspended maritime aid after two pirate attacks on its ships.

In June, the International Maritime Bureau (IMB) called again for "urgent help" from the navies of the major powers to protect shipping off the Somali coast.

But the West has been reluctant to get involved in Somalia's troubles, mainly because of the disastrous US and UN interventions in the 1990s.

Sarkozy made it clear that the offer of French military help would last only two months. However a Western naval presence is permamently depoloyed in the Gulf of Aden, just outside Somali waters.

France's largest foreign military base is in Djibouti, which borders Somalia, and a multinational naval force patrols the zone to protect international shipping lanes against terrorist attacks.

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