El-Maan port officials said the St Vincent and the Grenadines-registered ship arrived in the port, 35 kilometres (25 miles) north of Mogadishu and gunmen demanded that 850 tonnes of German- and Japanese-donated rice be offloaded into their custody.

"The gunmen in two small vessels demanded that the food be offloaded to their vessels," the port official told AFP, adding that cargo was yet to be removed from the vessel.

In addition, the gunmen demanded a unknown amount of money, which would be used to transport the food back to the Haradere, about 300 kilometres (185 miles) north of Mogadishu, where the ship was hijacked on June 27, they said.

"The amount of money they are demanding for the food to be taken back to Haradere is about 100,000 dollars (82,000 euros)," said the port official, who requested to remain unnamed for security reasons.

After the money is paid, the gunmen have promised to allow the ship, MV Semlow, and its crew to return to the home in the port of Mombasa in Kenya.

World Food Programme (WFP), which had chartered the ship, confirmed the docking of the ship, but said negotiations continue with help from the Somali transitional federal government, El-Maan port officials and middlemen.

"We are negotiating with help of Somali officials for the safe passage of the ship and its crew members after discharging the food," WFP deputy representative for Somalia Leo der Velden told AFP in Nairobi.

The new demands violates a deal that was reached in June between the hijackers and Somali government officials.

Broadly under the deal, the food would be handed over to the administration, which will in turn distribute it to drought-stricked areas in central and southern Somalia, where interclan fighting has hampered arrival of relief supplies.

The ship and its 10-member crew - eight Kenyans, a Tanzanian engineer and a Sri Lankan captain - was taking food aid to victims of last year's tsunami in northeastern Somalia.

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