(DEAUVILLE) - European Union nations agreed Wednesday to launch an anti-piracy security operation off the coast of Somalia, perhaps as soon as next month, French Defence Minister Herve Morin said.

"There is very broad European willingness. Many countries want to take part. Ten have clearly given their accord to take part in such a mission," he said at a meeting of EU defence ministers in Deauville, northern France.

"We have given a mandate (to EU top brass) to continue the planning for the launch of this operation in the month of November," he told reporters. "We will see what means, NATO and European, can be added."

The initiative comes after Somali President Abdullahi Yusuf Ahmed urged Somalis and the international community to combat rising piracy off the lawless nation's waters, which has seen 60 ships seized this year alone.

Piracy is rife and well organised in the region where Somalia's northeastern tip juts into the Indian Ocean, preying on a key maritime route leading to the Suez Canal through which an estimated 30 percent of the world's oil transits.

Dozens of mainly merchant vessels have been seized by pirates off Somalia's 3,700 kilometres (2,300 miles) of largely unpatrolled coastline.

The pirates operate high-powered speedboats and are heavily armed, sometimes holding ships for weeks until they are released for large ransoms paid by governments or owners.

Morin said France, which holds the EU's rotating presidency, had suggested that Britain should host the mission's headquarters, with a forward operating headquarters at a yet to be determined location.

He would not say how many navy vessels would take part, but noted that some of the nations keen to take part were Belgium, Cyprus, France, Germany, Lithuania, the Netherlands, Spain, Sweden and possibly Britain.

"We have to coordinate between the ships that are in the zone and those we are going to send," he said, and added that NATO countries, and particularly the United States, had vessels in the area.

Informal meeting of EU defence ministers

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