CRI听力：250 million dollars donated to fight pirate attack in Somali

At the UN-sponsored international donors' conference, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said that the world needs to be patient but continuously committed.(www.hXen.com)

"I am very much hopeful and realistic, hopeful in a sense that Somalia is standing at a crossroads and we have seen so much strong support, demonstrated political will. And realistic, we need to be realistic in a sense that the peace and stability may not take place tomorrow morning."

The pledged money, significantly exceeded what the conference originally requested, would go to training the Somali police force directly by the United Nations and developing Somali security forces and their oversight bodies.

The pledges also included a significant amount for the African Union forces in Somalia, as well as development aid for medicine, education and rural development.

Somalia's president Sheik Sharif Sheik Ahmed urged the international community to cooperate with the country.

"We think that the cooperation between us and the international community is the only means to put an end to this phenomenon. If we have the necessary vision, capabilities and means, it will be easy to bring this crisis to an end. And I'd like to tell the international community that this phenomenon will not last forever."

In the final conference communique, Ahmed called on the international community to help his government set up a new coast guard to address the problem of piracy.

In the past year, pirates have hijacked dozens of ships in the Indian Ocean and the Gulf of Aden, a key shipping lane linking Asia via the Suez Canal to Europe, taking about 80 million in ransom payments in 2008.