A man who identified himself as one of the pirates holding Britons Paul and Rachel Chandler hostage made the demand in a phone call to the BBC on Friday.

"We only need a little amount of $7 million," the caller said. "If they do not harm us, we will not harm them."

The Chandlers, both in their 50s, were seized from their yacht, the Lynn Rival, on October 23 by armed men. The yacht was later found abandoned in international waters.

In a phone call to the BBC on Friday, the caller, who identified himself as one of the pirates, said: "We only need a little amount of seven million dollars. If they do not harm us, we will not harm them."

A Foreign Office spokesman in London said the British government was aware of the reported ransom demand and but that it could not confirm its authenticity.

The spokesman said the government rejected the ransom demand.

"The government isn't going to make any substantive concessions to hostage-takers, and that includes the payment of ransom," he said.

The Chandlers' family said they were still checking the demand.

Somali Prime Minister Omar Sharmarke said in London that his government was attempting to make contact with the pirates to explain that the couple did not have so much money.

Couple moved ashore

Media reports also said that the kidnappers had moved the Chandlers on shore from a container vessel and that there was a dispute between different groups over the two Britons.

The Chandlers were kidnapped last Friday soon after they set out for Tanzania after leaving the Seychelles archipelago in the Indian Ocean. Their kidnappers took them to the Somali coast.

The Britons were then moved from their yacht to a large container ship because the pirates feared foreign forces might try and rescue them.

The ransom call came a day after Rachel Chandler made a tearful phone call to her brother, saying they were coping with the pressure and that their captors had given them food and water.

"Please don't worry about us, we are managing," she said, according to a recording of the conversation broadcast on Britain's ITV News.

Pirates blame NATO operations

The pirate who made the ransom call said the money was partly in compensation for the damage caused by NATO-led anti-piracy operations off the Somali coast.

"They have destroyed a lot of equipment belonging to the poor local fishermen," he said.

Earlier this year, European Union nations decided to extend their anti-piracy naval operation off the coast of Somalia by one year.

The extension of Operation Atlanta allows for ships from EU nations to continue their operations until December 2010. Voting for the extension in June, the 27-nation bloc said piracy off the Somali coast remained a "serious threat".

A German frigate is among EU vessels patrolling the lawless Gulf of Aden waters off Somalia as part of the Atalanta mission.

Piracy is rife off the Horn of Africa nation, which has not had an effective central government since 1991.

Young men take to the seas in search of multimillion-dollar ransoms despite the presence of over a dozen international warships. The pirates have since expanded their operations further out into the Indian Ocean to avoid the patrols.

In the last few weeks, pirates seized a Chinese cargo ship with 25 crew members, a Spanish fishing boat with 36 crew onboard and a Panamian cargo vessel carrying over two dozen seamen.

Pirates in northern Somalia said on Saturday they had seized a Yemeni fishing vessel after a gunbattle overnight that killed one of the hijackers and wounded another.

rb/dpa/Reuters

Editor: Kyle James