KUALA LUMPUR, Oct. 24 (Kyodo)- Authorities have identified aninternational syndicate selling palm oil on the black market as behind therecent spate of ship hijackings in Indonesian waters, the InternationalMaritime Bureau (IMB) said Thursday.''The IMB believes a ruthless and determined gang is preying on valuablepalm oil cargoes being towed off Sumatran coast,'' the IMB said in astatement released in conjunction with its January-September 2002 reporton piracy attacks worldwide.It said the trend, in which tugs towing barges laden with expensivecargoes have been hijacked, emerged during the third quarter of this year.This September alone, three such hijacking cases were reported in theregion -- two in Indonesian waters, one in the Malacca Strait. The threeships were carrying millions of dollars worth of palm oil.''The police have identified those responsible and are liaising withlaw-enforcement agencies in neighboring countries,'' the IMB said.In the first nine months of this year, the two areas reported a total of13 hijackings.Indonesian waters are notorious for being pirate-infested, having toppedthe IMB's list every year in the number of piracy cases reported. BetweenJanuary and September this year, 72 cases were recorded there out of thetotal 271 cases worldwide.On Oct. 1, the IMB warned that a pirate gang is preying on small tankersentering the southern approaches to the Malacca Strait, seizing theircargoes of diesel oil, for which there is a ready market.The London-based IMB, which operates a piracy reporting center at itsregional office in Kuala Lumpur that is financed by voluntarycontributions from shipping and insurance companies, also called onSoutheast Asian governments to ratify the 1998 Suppression of UnlawfulActs at Sea Convention.At present, the convention, which obliges contracting governments eitherto extradite or prosecute perpetrators of violence at sea, has only beenratified by 73 states.The IMB said the need to ratify the convention has become urgent as piracycases keep on piling up each year worldwide, with 271 cases being recordedin the first nine months of 2002 compared with only 253 for the sameperiod last year.The bureau also voiced concern over the Oct. 6 terrorist attack on theFrench-flagged oil tanker Limburg off Yemen, which killed one crew memberand sent more than 90,000 barrels of oil pouring into the Gulf of Aden.It recommended that government and port authorities consider prescribedtraffic lanes for maritime vessels, where practicable, patrolled by coastguard vessels and kept free of all unauthorized craft