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COPENHAGEN (Reuters) - Danish shipping and oil group A.P. Moller-Maersk disclosed on Tuesday that it hired a Tanzanian navy vessel in late 2008 to keep pirates off its Brigit Maersk tanker in waters off Somalia.

Many shipping companies have tried hiring armed guards to protect their vessels against pirates, who have seized ships off Africa and in parts of Asia, but the practice of engaging warships would mark an escalation of efforts against piracy.

It could also mean an extra levy on shippers' earnings.

Maersk, the world's biggest container shipper and a large tanker operator, said it hired the Tanzanian vessel to escort its tanker to an East African port after an attack on another Maersk vessel in the Gulf of Aden in December 2008.

"We only paid salaries and bunker (fuel) for the Tanzanians. It was a one-off," Maersk spokesman Michael Storgaard said.

Maersk Tankers have not called in ports in East Africa in the past 13 months, and the company has no plans to resume tanker service to the area, he said.

Piracy has been rife in recent years off the Horn of Africa, Nigeria and in parts of Asia such as the Straits of Malacca between Malaysia and Indonesia.

Jan Fritz Hansen of the Danish Shipowners Association said international navy escorts in the Gulf of Aden had helped ships through those waters, but sailing further south in the Indian Ocean where such arrangements do not exist can be dangerous.

"Down in the Indian Ocean, things are a little outside the normal procedures, and we have to find ways to protect our vessels," Hansen said.