"Malaysia's success in ensuring the safety of the Straits of Malacca jointly with Indonesia, Thailand and Singapore shows that we are able to overcome piracy," Rais said.

Choong, said that it would be difficult for other Navies to detain pirates due to the prevailing law of the land, but searching boats for weapons can be a first step towards tackling the menace which is engulfing the Gulf of Aden.

"As long as there is no firm deterrent, piracy will continue in the African waters," Choon said, adding the involvement of the international community and bodies like the United Nations was needed to help stamp out sea piracy.

"There must be a way to stop the armed marauders from hijacking vessels with cargo and crew, political will is required to urgently stop this," Choong said.

Armed Somali pirates hijacked a Hong Kong registered cargo vessel late last week which had crew from India and some other countries.

Pirates hijacked the Delight, a Hong Kong-registered 43,000 dead weight tonne cargo vessel bound for Iran. They also seized a Thai fishing boat with 16 crew on board.

Referring to the Malacca Straits which too has witnessed piracy attacks reportedly by Indonesian pirates some time back, Choong said the Gulf of Aden area and Malacca Straits could not be compared.

"They are totally different. There is a strong patrolling by all the countries in the area in the Straits each of which have a government, Navy and police," Choong said, adding that in the case of Somalia there were only the warlords and no powerful government.