MANILA (AFP) — Twenty Filipinos were aboard a Japanese-owned freighter seized by pirates off the coast of Somalia at the weekend, the Philippines government said Wednesday.

"The owner is now in contact with the crew and they are safe," foreign department official Esteban Conejos told reporters in Manila.

The Panama-flagged Stella Maris with 21 crew members was taken over by gunmen off the Somali coast on Sunday, officials in Kenya and at the International Maritime Bureau's Piracy Reporting Centre in Malaysia said.

The nationality of the last crew member was not immediately known.

Conejos stressed that Manila would not consider paying ransom, and said the Philippine embassy in Nairobi was monitoring the situation.

It was not known if the pirates had demanded any money in return for the release of the crew.

According to the International Maritime Bureau, more than 25 ships were seized off Somalia's 3,700 kilometres (2,300 miles) of coastline last year despite patrols by an international force based in Djibouti.

Source: AFP