CAIRO - An Egyptian company, that owns a cargo ship captured by Somali pirates earlier this month with 23 sailors on board, has rejected paying a four-million dollar ransom, warning Egyptian media against talking to the pirates, whom it says are exploiting the sailors' distress to pressure the company. "The MV Suez ship is valued at two million dollars. This is half the sum of the ransom demanded by the Somali pirates. We will surely not bow to this," Abdel Meguid Mattar, the Red Sea company's manager, said. He added that the Somali pirates were pressuring the company to pay the ransom by allowing the captured crew to phone their relatives and mass media. "This is their technique to get higher sums of money. However, the Egyptian Foreign Ministry is doing its best to help release the ship," Mattar said. He added that they were negotiating with the pirates. "However, we will not pay such a large sum of money," he said. Currently, the pirates have the vessel off Somalia's northern coast. There are 23 sailors on board, including 11 Egyptians and people from India, Sri Lanka and Pakistan.