BRUSSELS, March 11 (Xinhua) -- NATO member states have approved the operational plan of a second anti-piracy mission off the coast of Somalia, said the alliance on Wednesday.

    "NATO governments -- ambassadors -- have approved the operational plan for the deployment of the Standing NATO Maritime Group 1 (SNMG1) to conduct counter-piracy operations off the coast of Somalia," NATO spokesman James Appathurai told a press briefing.

    The group, which consists of seven naval vessels from Canada, Germany, the Netherlands, Portugual, Spain and the United States, will pass the Suez Canal on March 19 and the operations will end by early July, he said.

    The ships, however, will have a one-month break-off from the anti-piracy mission for port visits, said the spokesman.

    NATO carried out its first anti-piracy mission off Somalia between October and December 2008. Four NATO warships from SNMG2 were deployed, resulting in the safe delivery of 30,000 tons of humanitarian aid to Somalia by the World Food Program. The NATO vessels also conducted deterrence patrols in the area most susceptible to criminal acts against merchant shipping.

    Currently, the European Union is having a massive 12-month naval operation off the coast of Somalia, together with anti-piracy efforts by individual countries such as Russia, China and India.