COPENHAGEN - An Asian chemical tanker released by pirates earlier this week is stranded adrift 60 miles off the coast of Somalia after running out of fuel, its captain told AFP Thursday.

The MT Stolt Strength was released on Tuesday after being seized by pirates for five months leaving it low on fuel and supplies.

"We called the members of the international (NATO/EU) fleet, but they could not help us with the fuel as they don't have the facilities to do so," said Captain Abelardo Pacheco in a telephone interview.

"A German warship has brought us supplies and another American boat will also bring as food and water tomorrow morning (Friday)," he added.

Pacheco said a fuel tanker had been sent from the Kenyan port of Mombasa to assist the Philippine-flagged vessel.

"We need help, protection, a military escort," he said, adding his 23 Filipino crew feared further pirate attacks.

Per Gullestrup, the director of Copenhagen-based shipping company Clipper, alerted AFP to the MT Stolt Strength's situation after being tipped off by a number of industry sources.

"We don't know why they are not giving them the necessary protection. That's why we are protesting, as a shipping company which has already been a victim of pirate attacks, so that they do not suffer the same fate," Gullestrup said.

Another of Clipper's ships, the CEC Future, was held for 68 days in 2008 by Somali pirates in the Gulf of Aden.

At least 11 ships have been hijacked by pirates operating from small boats and equipped with assault rifles, rockets, and grappling hooks since the start of April.

A similar spate of attacks -- including on high-profile targets such as a Saudi supertanker and an arms-laden Ukrainian ship -- in the last months of 2008 had prompted naval powers to dispatch warships to the region.

After a slight dip in piracy in the first month of 2009, favourable weather conditions have allowed the pirates to prove they could adapt their tactics and dodge the international community's growing armada.

The Malaysia-based International Maritime Bureau's (IMB) Piracy Reporting Centre said on Tuesday that attacks off Somalia had jumped tenfold in the first three months of the year.