Ransom talks refusal attacked

Paul and Rachel Chandler, from Tunbridge Wells, Kent, were seized from their yacht the Lynn Rival while sailing from the Seychelles towards Tanzania more than three months ago.

A not-for-profit organisation set up to tackle piracy insisted it should be allowed to negotiate a payment for their release before their captors lose patience.

Chairman of the Merchant Maritime Warfare Centre Nick Davis said: "The door is open for them to be released. Somebody needs to pick up the gauntlet and run with it. We are the people who know what needs to be done, we can do it, we just need to be allowed to do it."

Mr Davis said he arranged a 100,000 deal to start talks with the pirates in November but he said the Foreign Office did not return his calls, the deal was not pushed forward and the chance to free the hostages was missed.

He said the pirates were unlikely to harm the couple but he feared they could be abandoned.