NEW DELHI - INDIA is to station a naval surveillance aircraft in the Gulf of Aden to boost its anti-piracy efforts in the region, a newspaper report on Sunday quoted a military officer as saying.

The plans come after an Indian warship on patrol in the region captured 23 Somali and Yemeni pirates trying to hijack an Ethiopian flag-bearing merchant vessel.

'Our plan is to base a maritime reconnaissance aircraft at Djibouti,' the Times of India quoted the unnamed senior naval officer as saying.

The navy said that on Saturday its warship Mysore had dispatched helicopter-borne commandos to help the MV Gibe, which had sent a distress call as it came under fire from two pirate boats.

The commandos captured 23 pirates and recovered a large cache of arms including assault rifles and a rocket-propelled grenade launcher along with loaded magazines, cartridges and grenades, a navy statement said.

New Delhi first deployed warships in the Gulf of Aden, one of the busiest but most pirate-infested shipping lanes in the world, in October after a merchant vessel with Indian crew was taken hostage by pirates.

Somali pirates have carried out around 100 attacks in the Gulf of Aden and the Indian Ocean since the start of this year. They still hold at least 14 foreign vessels and more than 300 crew members.

Last month, India's anti-piracy tactics were questioned when the International Maritime Bureau said an Indian ship had destroyed a Thai fishing trawler instead of a pirate vessel as the navy claimed. -- AFP