Nairobi/Mogadishu/New York  - Gunmen late Monday in Somalia released four United Nations relief workers - three foreigners and one local staffer - after a brief abduction, the UN said.

Marie Okabe, a spokeswoman at UN headquarters in New York, said that the four were released following a brief detention by the armed kidnappers. No details were provided.

Nairobi/Mogadishu  - Gunmen have kidnapped four United Nations aid workers in the south of conflict-ridden Somalia, the UN said Monday.

Dawn Elizabeth Blalock, a spokeswoman for the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, said that the four were taken on Monday morning as they travelled to the airport in the town of Waajid, around 340 kilometres north-west of the capital Mogadishu.

Blalock said that while the kidnappers were armed, there was no violence or shooting during the kidnapping.

Three of the aid workers were believed to be foreign, with some reports suggesting one of them is a Russian. However, no official confirmation on their identities or nationalities was forthcoming.

Tokyo  - Japan Friday signalled its plans to participate in the international counter-piracy mission off the coast of Somalia, on the Horn of Africa.

Defence Minister Yasukazu Hamada ordered two destroyers to the waters off Somalia, Japan's news agency Kyodo reported.

Each ship is equipped with two helicopters and two speed boats.

The move marks the first time that Japan is sending self defence vessels to participate in such an operation in foreign waters. The destroyers are to be deployed into the Gulf in early April.

Earlier Thursday, European Union defence officials said they had no plans to boost its Somali counter-piracy mission off the Somali coast.

Prague  - The European Union does not plan to boost its counter-piracy mission off the Somali coast, designed to protect civilian ships passing through the Somali waters, EU defence officials said prior to their meeting on Thursday.

"I find that everything is going on well. It is sufficient," said British Secretary of State for Defence John Hutton.

The EU mission currently uses five frigates provided by Britain, France, Germany, Greece and Spain. Their chief task is to escort vessels from the World Food Programme through the waters off Somalia.

Berlin  - Germany plans to ask Kenya to take custody of nine pirates captured earlier this week by the German Navy off the coast of Somalia, a Foreign Ministry spokesman said Sunday.

Prosecutors in the German city of Hamburg issued arrest warrants for the nine Somalis on Friday, but a day later said there was no need for them to be transferred to Germany.

The Foreign Ministry spokesman said the request for Kenya to take custody of the pirates would formally be made to authorities in Nairobi by the German embassy on Monday.

Germany's government had been seeking the transfer of the suspects to Kenya, a move that was sealed Friday morning in an agreement with the European Union.

Hamburg/Berlin  - A court in Hamburg late Friday issued arrest warrants for the nine pirates captured earlier this week by the German Navy off the coast of Somalia.

The state's attorney requested the arrests based on charges of an attack on traffic on the high seas, justice spokesman Wilhelm Moellers told Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa.

The German government had been seeking the transfer of the suspects to Kenya, a move that was sealed Friday morning in an agreement with the European Union.