* Pirate hunts followed by aid escorts

* Food supply in constant threat as Somalis starve

* 90 percent of UN food aid goes by sea

By Alison Bevege

ON BOARD NRP CORTE-REAL, June 12, (Reuters) - After a dramatic three-hour chase, seven Somali pirates stood on the deck of their mother ship transfixed by the helicopter circling in the darkness above them.

They had tried to hijack a Norwegian oil tanker in the Gulf of Aden but fled when the aircraft from NATO's Portuguese warship NRP Corte-Real interrupted the attack.

The stench of fuel, sweat and rotting food mingled on the breeze as the bandits searched the night sky.

They did not notice the team of commandos that had sneaked up beside them in a speedboat.

Marine Rafael Silva was the first to climb onto the dhow, where he came face to face with two stunned pirates.

"They were very surprised," he said.

One of them moved to attack but Silva, 25, tackled and handcuffed him.

The other men were restrained on the deck before the Portuguese special forces stormed the bridge, manned by two bandits wielding AK-47s.

"When we saw them (the AK-47s) we got worried," said another marine, Ricardo Bolinhas.

But the stand-off ended peacefully. "We shouted at them to put their weapons on the floor and they did," he said.

The marines found more AK-47s, rocket propelled grenades, and enough high explosives to sink a ship.

The 19 Somalis were released and disarmed on the direction of authorities in Portugal.

OTHER DUTIES

The warship then turned to other duties. On Wednesday it escorted two United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) vessels to Mogadishu to feed Somalis traumatised by the latest upsurge of violence in their chaotic country.

Two miles offshore, the Corte-Real was on high alert with heavily armed marines guarding the bridge and its radars scanning the waters for trouble.

The food aid ships carried 20,000 tonnes of sorghum to the Somali capital -- enough grain to feed 1.1 million people for a month, according to the world food aid body.

Rear Admiral Jose Domingos Pereira da Cunha watched from the bridge as the vessels made their way through the choppy swell to the hazy coast of Somalia.

"It is a question of survival," he said. "If the pipeline (of food aid) is not guaranteed it would be a very bad situation. We have to continue until stabilisation happens in Somalia."

The UN estimates 3.2 million Somalis need food aid.

WFP Somalia Country Director Peter Goossens said 117,000 people had fled Mogadishu in the last month of fighting.

"Some families left their homes with little more than the clothes on their backs."

Piracy continues to threaten the food route to Somalia: more than 90 percent of WFP's donated goods arrive by sea.

Thousands would starve to death and more refugees would flee to Kenya, Ethiopia, Yemen and Djibouti without warships to guard the food aid, Goossens said.

"Continued naval escorts are a lifeline for many Somalis."

The International Maritime Bureau reports that more ships have been attacked so far in 2009 than in the whole of 2008.

This year there have been 132 reported attacks compared with 111 for all of 2008, said Cyrus Mody, the bureau's manager. But fewer attacks have been successful: in 2009 so far there have been 29 successful hijackings compared with 42 last year.

Military forces have had to guard WFP aid shipments since October 2007.

NATO now has five warships off the Somali coast. Many of those aboard would like to return home, but experts agree there can be no end to the sea patrols without stability and law-enforcement on land in Somalia. (Editing by Giles Elgood)

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