Negotiations are on for the safe release of the Joranian ship crew, that includes 10 Indians, which was hijacked five days earlier near the Somalia coast.

The ship carrying 4,200 tonnes of sugar was travelling between Mumbai and Mogadishu.

"The hijackers of MV Victoria have offloaded the cargo from the vessel. Now negotiations are on for the safe release of the crew that includes 10 Indians," a top DG Shipping official told PTI.

However, India is not part of the negotiations because the ship is not registered in India.

"We are not part of the negotiations. But these type of negotiations are done by middlemen," the official said.

The Jordanian vessel was hijacked on May 17 near the Somalia coast by heavily armed Somali pirates.

The ship has 21 crew of which ten are Indians and the rest are Pakistanis, Burmese, Bangladeshi, Kenyans and Tanzanians.

Victoria is owned by Five Seas Company and operated by Marwan Shipping, both Sharjah-based.

DG Shipping has asked the ship operator to supply it with the Seafarers Identity Numbers to verify the antecedents of the Indian sailors.

The Seafarers Identity Documents are issued from the place where the ship is registered. In this case it is Jordan.

"But the operators and owners are not giving us theSeafarers Identity Numbers. The owners are hiding it from us," the official said.

Victoria has been traced to Murgane village, 500 km north of the Somalian capital, and the crew is reported to be safe.

Victoria was carrying the sugar donated by Denmark to war-torn Somalia as aid when it was attacked by heavily-armed Somali pirates, 40 nautical miles off Mogadishu.

The hijacking of Victoria is third such incident reported in Somalia in the last five months.

India has kept its destroyer INS Delhi on stand-by and is ready to sail.

India has also approached the US Naval Forces-Central Command in Bahrain to free the vessel and crew.

The Indian Coast Guard Maritime Rescue Coordination Centre has contacted search and rescue agencies in Yemen, Seychelles and Norway to alert their counterparts for action against the pirates.

This is the second time Victoria has been attacked. Last year, pirates tried to board it outside the Somalia port of Merka, but failed.

In February, another vessel MV Rezzak went missing with 25 Indian crew. Rezzak was carrying steel billets between Russia [Images] and Turkey. The fate of the ship and crew is unknown till date.