THE crew of a French cruise ship held hostage Friday off the coast of Somalia includes six Filipinos, the Department of Foreign Affairs said yesterday.

Esteban Conejos, undersecretary for migrant workers’ affairs, said all the crew members are "safe and in good physical condition" based on his communications with French authorities.

Conejos said the families of the six, including a female, have been informed.

The families have requested that their identities be withheld, he also said.

The Filipinos were deployed by Magsaysay Maritime Corp.

"We’ve given instruction to our embassy in Paris to coordinate for the release of all the crew. We’ve also sent instruction to our embassies to Manama, Nairobi and Riyadh to coordinate with authorities and ask for assistance," Conejos said.

He said the Philippine government will not be directly involved in the negotiations for the release of the ship and its crew.

The French-registered luxury cruise ship Le Ponant, was taken by "an armed group" in the Gulf of Aden last Friday and anchored in the northeast coast of Somalia.

Conejos said the ship was on its way to the Red Sea and the Suez Canal to pick up passengers in Alexandria before going to Malta.

Conejos said it is still not clear whether pirates were behind the incident. "There were also no reports whether the armed group was demanding any ransom," he said.

Wire reports have said the hijackers were pirates who on Sunday fired at local gunmen who stopped them from trying to land at Garaad, a fishing village in central Somalia.

Piracy is lucrative off lawless Somalia and most kidnappers treat their captives well in anticipation of a good ransom.

"The pirates have made no terrorist demands. The act of piracy is motivated solely by financial reasons," a French diplomat said on condition of anonymity.