By Jeremy Clarke NAIROBI, Nov 17 (Reuters) - Somali pirates who hijacked a Japanese chemical tanker are expected to demand a ransom of more than $1 million for the safe return of the vessel and its 23 crew, a maritime official said on Saturday. Negotiations are going on to release the Golden Nori, which was carrying benzene from Singapore to Israel when it was seized on Oct. 28 some eight nautical miles off Mogadishu. "I believe there will be a safe result, but not for less than one million dollars," said Andrew Mwangura, head of the East African Seafarers' Assistance Programme, which tracks piracy cases off Somalia. "It may be even more than the $1.5 million ransom paid for a Danish ship earlier this year," he told Reuters. Ransom demands are normally determined by the size of the ship, its cargo and the nationalities of its crew, he said. PIRACY RIFE Stakeholders including Japan's government and the ship owners' insurers were involved in the talks, he added. "Everyone is playing their part," he said by telephone. The Golden Nori's sailors are from Myanmar, the Philippines and South Korea. Their condition is unknown, but Mwangura's group is investigating reports one South Korean had escaped. In August, Danish media said Somali pirates freed the MV Danica White cargo ship and its five Danish crew members after a security company paid a $1.5 million ransom. Piracy has been rife off Somalia since warlords toppled military dictator Mohamed Siad Barre in 1991. But attacks have reached unprecedented levels due to instability onshore as the country's interim government battles insurgents, and Mwangura said piracy could worsen in 2008. "The pirates are under the control of the warlords who govern Somalia ... It just gets worse and worse and worse." (Editing by Daniel Wallis)
