Nine Indonesians, mainly from the tsunami-hit province of Aceh, have been jailed for seven years for a pirate attack on a Malaysian-owned tanker, local media said today.

The Sessions Court sentenced the group for carrying out the armed, pre-dawn attack on the Nepline Delima tanker off the northern resort island of Langkawi in the Malacca Strait last June.

The tanker was carrying RM12 million worth of diesel from Malaysia's Port Klang to Myanmar when it was boarded.

The attack was foiled when a quick-thinking crewman from the tanker leapt into the pirates' boat and sped off to alert police.

Serious and committed

Noel Choong, head of the Piracy Reporting Centre of the London-based International Maritime Bureau (IMB) Monday welcomed the swift investigations and jail sentence imposed on the pirates.

"IMB is pleased that Malaysia is serious and committed to fight piracy and armed robbery against ships. This can be seen with the jail sentence imposed on the pirates," he told AFP.

Choong said IMB hoped the sentence would deter pirates and would-be pirates from carrying out such attacks.

The Malacca Strait, separating the Indonesian island of Sumatra and the peninsula Malaysia, is one of the world's most important waterways, with 50,000 ships carrying about one-third of world trade passing through it each year.

It is notoriously vulnerable to pirate attacks.