ANY decision to widen Hongkong's role in combatting new piracy threats in the South China Sea was ''outside the gambit of a colonial Government'', administration officials said last night.
A Security Branch spokesman said the Hongkong Government was essentially powerless to take action against pirates operating outside the territory's waters other than search and rescue duties.
Such issues would have to be tackled by the Foreign Office and the Ministry of Defence in London.
The news comes as Marine Department officials investigate reports of another attack last week, hours after two ships were fired on south of Hainan Island.
Crew aboard the Danish-registered freighter Lion fired two rocket flares to scare off pirates who hit their ship with 15 bullets.
The 1,300-tonne ship was sailing from Pusan, in South Korea, to Singapore when it was attacked about 400 kilometres south of Hongkong.
A Security Branch spokesman said: ''Obviously we're concerned, but as yet there is no evidence of sustained attacks in the region.