Spain wants EU naval forces to blocade ports in Somalia from where the vast majority of pirate attacks against ships in the Indian Ocean have been launched, Defence Minister Carme Chacon said Wednesday. 'Spain will propose to our European Union partners at a meeting of foreign and defense ministers on Monday and Tuesday that we focus our military efforts on blocading these three ports,' she said during an interview with public radio RNE. 'We know that it is from these three ports that most, if not all, 'mother ships' used by pirates reach up to one thousand miles away from the coast -- as they did yesterday -- and carry out kidnappings far from the coast,' she added. Pirates launched Monday their longest range hijack attempt to date by opening fire on the Hong Kong-flagged crude oil tanker BW Lion some 1,000 nautical miles east of Mogadishu, the EU naval force in the region said. The next day pirates attacked the Danish-flagged container ship Nelle Maersk when it was also some 1,000 nautical miles east of the Somali capital. Both ships managed to escape their attackers but the incidents demonstrated how beefed-up security off the Somalia coast appears to be leading pirates to extend their range deeper into the Indian Ocean and its vital shipping lanes linking Asia and Europe. Chacon said Somali pirates were currently holding 12 boats and their crews hostage, including the Spanish trawler Alakrana which was seized along with its 36 crew on October 2. The pirates are demanding four million dollars (2.6 million euros) ransom as well as the release of two suspected pirates who were detained a few days after the trawler was seized. 