By Abdiqani Hassan

BOSASSO, Somalia, Oct 23 (Reuters) - The French navy handed nine suspected pirates to Somali security forces on Thursday four days after capturing them at sea and destroying their boats, local officials said.

French naval staff, who have been the most active in pursuing pirates among various international patrols in the region, handed the nine men over in handcuffs on the dock of Bosasso port in the northern province of Puntland.

"These pirates had two armed speedboats and wanted to hijack ships off Somalia waters. The French burnt the pirates' boats and then contacted us," Abdulqadir Muse Yusuf, Puntland's assistant minister for fisheries, told Reuters.

"They are now in our hands," he said.

Piracy off Somalia, one of the world's busiest shipping areas, has soared this year. Dozens of captures have brought millions of dollars of ransom payments for the pirates, hiked shipping insurance costs, and threatening aid shipments.

Amid a chorus of calls for tougher international action, the French have led the way, with commandos seizing a dozen pirates in two previous raids to free boats and hostages.

Paris and Washington both have military bases in the area, while the European Union and NATO alliance are sending ships.

The United Nations' World Food Programme (WFP), the main supplier of relief aid to Somalis, said on Thursday a Dutch frigate would take over from the Canadian navy to escort ships.

"Somalia is on a knife edge right now, and these food supplies are keeping hundreds of thousands away from death's door," WFP Somalia director Peter Goossens said.

War, drought and soaring food prices have created a humanitarian crisis that aid workers say is one of the world's worst and most neglected. At least a million Somalis are living as internal refugees.

Since international escorts began late last year, ships from France, Denmark, the Netherlands and Canada have secured the safe arrival of 145,000 tonnes of food in Somalia, WFP said in a statement said.

- Additional reporting by Wangui Kanina in Nairobi

(Editing by Michael Roddy)

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