U.S. Admiral Mark Fitzgerald warned on Thursday that pirates based in Somalia are extending the reach of their seize-and-ransom activities. The admiral told the Institute for International Strategic Studies, a London think-tank, that piracy had now reached as far south as Mozambique and as far east as India. Admiral Fitzgerald is the commander of United States naval forces in Europe and is also commander of U.S. naval forces in Africa. In addition he is the commander of NATO missions in the Balkans, Iraq and the Mediterranean from his base in Italy. He said: 'From my perch in Naples I look south and east because that's where the threats come from. Missiles from Iran. When you think of what's down there and what's affecting the world, people immediately think of piracy. 'In the last few weeks we've seen threats as far south as the Mozambique Channel and we saw one a couple of days ago off India. So, the entire Indian Ocean has become a problem of piracy.' The admiral added 'it is typically not violent piracy, it is taking over the ship and ransoming it for money.' In contrast with the situation in the Indian Ocean, there is a threat of violent piracy off the West African coast, said the admiral. 'The piracy down near the Gulf of Guinea is much more violent .. . people being killed and people being held ransom, a very different kind of piracy to the east coast. It is a concern for us, ' he said. These threats in both areas pose a threat to energy security, said Admiral Fitzgerald. 'About 50 percent of the world's oil comes through the Gulf of Aden and heads into the Mediterranean,' he said, adding that the west African coastal nations of Angola and Nigeria produced between 5-6 percent of the world's oil and were threatened by piracy too. 'It's a pretty significant problem, and we have started to focus down in the Gulf of Guinea to try to help build up capability,' he said. In an incident which extended the area of piracy, Somali pirates hijacked a Turkish-owned ship on Tuesday with 21 crew members on board. The Malta-flagged MV Frigia was seized early Tuesday over 1,000 miles east of Somalia's Haradhere. He said the 35,300 tonne ship was seized in an area some 400 nautical miles outside a shipping corridor protected by an international naval fleet. In December 2008, China sent a flotilla of three naval ships -- two destroyers and a supply ship -- in its first deployment into waters off Somalia to combat pirates. China's fourth Gulf of Aden mission left Somali waters last weekend after having successfully escorted more than 600 domestic and foreign vessels since the flotilla arrived in the region in November last year. The fourth mission served as part of a multinational coalition of warships patrolling the pirate-infested waters. China's fifth Gulf of Aden mission took over the escort of merchant vessels through the troubled waters in a handover ceremony from the fourth mission last week. 