The chairman of the Suez Canal Authority said on Monday that canal tolls would be kept unchanged "for the coming period".

Chairman Ahmed Ali Fadel told a news conference that traffic through the waterway would probably fall 7% in 2009 if the international financial crisis continued.

Fadel said the canal earned $5.4 billion in 2008, 16.7% up on the previous year, but he said the negative effect of the financial crisis and piracy off Somalia had begun hitting revenues in the last quarter.

Reports said he did not give a figure for receipts in December, but the maritime news service TradeWinds quoted Fadel as saying vessel volumes through Suez had declined 1.9% in the past three months.

In part, he blamed pirate activity in waters on the southern approaches to the canal.

The International Maritime Bureau (IMB) said last week that increased naval patrols had sharply reduced the number of pirate attacks in the Gulf of Aden and off Somalia.

It said only two ships were captured by pirates in December.

There were more than 100 pirate attacks in 2008 in the Gulf of Aden and Indian Ocean.

Some shipping companies have been routing ships around the southern tip of Africa to avoid the risk of attack.

Bunker players serving shipping routes off the West African coast told Bunkerworld in December they were beginning to see more enquires as a result of the diversions.