'Nato, the EU and other stakeholders (should decide) to carry out not a maritime operation, but a land operation that would eradicate pirates bases along the coast', Ambassador Dmitry Rogozin said.
Any land operation in Somalia would likely require the approval of the UN Security Council. Nato officials have said the current mandate governing international naval anti-piracy patrols allows no such amphibious operations on the shore.
Mr Rogozin said that, six months ago at a meeting of the Russia-Nato Council, he proposed a combined land operation between Russian and the Nato alliance that would target the pirates.
Since then, 80 ships have been attacked by pirates near the coast of Somalia, he said. Thirty-two of them have been seized, of which 14 are still being held by the Somali-based criminal gangs.
The pirates are holding hostage 280 seamen, including 11 Russians, he said.
The Russia-Nato council is the alliance's primary vehicle for cooperation with Moscow. Nato froze the council's activities soon after the war between Russia and Georgia in August.
Relations between Russia and Nato, damaged in recent years due to the alliance's eastward expansion, plunged to a post-Cold War low in the wake of the Georgian war.
Mr Rogozin criticised the alliance for ignoring the Russian contribution to a recent joint naval operation against Somali pirates trying to seize a merchant ship off the Horn of Africa.
He cited a Nato statement released last Thursday in which the alliance's secretary-general commended the actions of the British frigate HMS Cumberland in the fire-fight in which three attackers were killed.
Although Nato officials said the Russian frigate Neustrashimy was also was involved in the operation with the Cumberland, this was not included in the official press release.
'There was not a word in Nato statements about the prompt and capable actions of the Russian navy participating in the anti-piracy campaign. Not a word on the real cooperation in battle conditions', Mr Rogozin said.
Mr Rogozin said 'this partiality in information presentation' reflected the anti-Russian bias of some alliance members. -- AP