Malaysia and Singapore will set up a joint border health committee to tighten control at entry points to try to curb the spread of the killer pneumonia Sars, Health Minister Chua Jui Meng said today.

The committee, headed by senior officials, will hold its first meeting soon to examine all current control measures to see if they are adequate, Chua told a briefing for foreign diplomats here.

"This is another step forward in our cooperation," he said, adding that both countries would have to work closely to battle the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (Sars) which has killed more than 100 people and infected more than 3,000 worldwide.

Difficult to impose restrictions

Malaysia has taken a series of drastic measures to block the spread of Sars, including banning visitors from China and Hong Kong, and imposing visa requirements o­n travellers from Canada and Vietnam.

But visitors from Singapore, where nine people have died from Sars, can still travel freely into Malaysia, where o­ne person has died from the mysterious illness.

Chua said it would be difficult to impose any restrictions o­n Singapore because many Malaysians travel daily to the island-state to work and study. Singaporeans are also the biggest group of tourists to Malaysia.

"Many of our people go there to study and work. Even if we tell them not to go, they will go. This is the reality but we already have very special arrangements with Singapore to contain the threat," he said.

Allaying fears

Some 120 health officers have been deployed at the two key entry points in Malaysia's southern Johor state bordering Singapore to screen passengers, he said.

Chua updated some 100 foreign diplomats o­n the Sars situation in the country and sought to allay fears that Malaysia was unsafe for tourists.

Tour operators have warned that the new visa rulings would seriously damage tourism, which is Malaysia's second biggest foreign exchange earner. AFP