But it was not clear whether the boat, MV Semlow, which was hijacked on June 27, would be allowed to return to the home port of Mombasa in Kenya, after offloading about 850 tonnes of German- and Japanese-donated rice in El-Maan port.

Nor were the circumstances that led to the ship's release clear, given a ransom demand that had been put to its owners by the pirates. This has gone without comment from concerned parties.

The vessel and its 10-member crew - eight Kenyans, a Tanzanian engineer and a Sri Lankan captain - had been held in the Somali port town of Haradere, about 300 kilometres (185 miles) north of Mogadishu.

"We can confirm that the ship is on its way to El-Maan and we expect it to take three to five days to get there," UN World Food Programme (WFP) spokeswoman Rene McGuffin told AFP.

The pirates seized the St Vincent and the Grenadines-registered ship which was on its way from Mombasa to Bossaso transporting food to victims of last year's tsunami.

They demanded a ransom of 500,000 dollars (404,000 euros) but it was not known how owners of the ship handled the demand.

"WFP was not asked for ransom," McGuffin said.

She added the UN food body has negotiated with port authorities in El-Mann to ensure a smooth passage of the cargo to the transitional federal government (TFG), which operates from the provincial town of Jowhar, about 90 kilometres (55 miles) north of Mogadishu.

"WFP has negotiated with port authorities in El-Maan to facilitate free passage of the food to the central region. The food will be handed over to the TFG," McGuffin added.

Officials refused to confirm the vessel had been definitively released, given the unreliability of hijackers in the shattered African nation that has been wracked by violence since dictator Mohamed Siad Barre was toppled in 1991.

Somali officials in the Kenyan capital said the vessel was allowed to sail under a deal struck in July between the transitional administration and the hijackers.

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.

"I can confirm that no ransom was paid for the deal," said an official with the Somali administration, who did not want to be named.

Fine details remain shrouded in secrecy, but sources close to both sides said the hijackers were promised rewards.

Kenya's ambassador to Somalia Mohamed Abdi Affey, who runs his office from Nairobi, sounded sceptical, saying freedom for the 10 hostages would be confirmed by their arrival in Mombasa.

"Let us see the people and ship in Kenya. That is the time to trust that they are free," Affey told AFP here.

Since the seizure, hijacker have given false promises of releasing the vessel, only to modify the ransom demands.

Both the International Maritime Board (IMB), a division of the International Chamber of Commerce, and the United States have in recent months issued increasingly dire alerts about threats to shipping off the Somali coast.

In August, the IMB said the coast of Somalia, which had seen few attacks for almost two years, has suffered a resurgence of assaults by pirates with guns and grenades, with nine incidents recorded since mid-July.

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