Malaysian police commandos boarded a hijacked cargo ship in a dramatic night-time operation early Tuesday following a 17-hour chase through the busy Malacca Straits, officials said.

Twelve maritime police officers rappelled onto the deck of the moving MV Paulijing, which was hijacked almost three years ago near Singapore, and detained 20 Chinese nationals on board.

"It was a successful operation," marine force commander Abdul Rahman Ahmad told AFP . "We did not fire a single shot. The crew gave up without any resistance."

Four gun boats carrying some 45 marine police were involved in the operation that started Monday.

"The ship refused to stop and was sailing towards the southern tip of the Malacca Straits," Abdul Rahman said.

Under watch for three months

The Malaysian-owned cargo ship, which was originally named MV Natris, was hijacked in November 2002 in Indonesian waters off Batam island near Singapore. It was heading from India to Vietnam with a cargo of soya bean.

Abdul Rahman said the ship had now been taken to Tanjung Pelapas port in Johor with the crew onboard and guarded by a police craft.

Noel Choong, head of the Piracy Reporting Centre of the International Maritime Bureau, hailed the operation and said the IMB had alerated police to the presence of the ship.

He said the bureau had been monitoring the movement of the ship for the past three months.

"When we found out that it was sailing into the Malacca Straits, we alerted the marine police," he said.