The head of the United Nations body charged with combating piracy has advocated establishing a UN force to pacify an area of the sea, in the face of the piracy problem off Somalia and Yemen.

Efthimios Mitropoulos, secretary-general of the International Maritime Organisation, made the call in an interview with the Financial Times when he described the crisis in the Gulf of Aden – the gateway to the vital Suez Canal – as among the most severe facing the world.