The White House said on Wednesday that it is closely monitoring the hijacking of a US- flagged ship off the coast of Somalia.
Presidential Spokesman Robert Gibbs told reporters that the White House is "assessing a course of action" on the incident and the top priority will be placed on the personal safety of the crew members aboard the ship.

Earlier in the day, a US-flagged cargo ship with some 20 Americans on board was hijacked off the Somali coast, the first pirate attack on American citizens in recent years.
Media reports said the Obama administration was talking to the ship's company to learn details of the incident.
But administration officials are refraining from saying what actions the United States will pursue to solve the incident.
The ship's owner, the Maersk Line Ltd. based in Virginia and a US subsidiary of Denmark's A.P. Moller-Maersk, said the hijacked ship is Maersk Alabama, which belongs to the company's subsidiary in Norfolk, Va.
The ship was en route to Mombasa, Kenya when it was attacked about 500 kilometres off Somalia's coast, the company said in a statement.
Maersk Spokesman Michael Storgaard would not provide any details about the security arrangements on board the Maersk Alabama.
The Maersk Line is one of the U.S. Department of Defence's primary shipping contractors, but the Maersk Alabama is not under a Pentagon contract, according to the US military.
Storgaard said US-flagged ships are not usually escorted by the US Navy unless they request it.
The attack marks a rare hijacking of a US-operated ship in Africa, where piracy has been surging along Somalia's coast and in the Gulf of Aden.
According to experts, the last attack on an American vessel by African pirates was reported in 1804, off Libya.
It remained unclear who seized the vessel, and there were no reports of ransom demands.
US warships, joined by several other foreign navies, have been patrolling the region since late last year.
At the time of the attack, the closest U.S. warship was 483 km away and unable to respond.
The second in command of the hijacked ship is Shane Murphy, a graduate of the Massachusetts Maritime Academy, his father told US media.
Identities of other people on board remained unknown.