Malaysia pledged to help wipe out piracy on the Malacca Strait and work more closely with the United States as part of a stepped up multi-national campaign against regional terrorism, but US forces will still not be allowed to fight in local waters.

Deputy Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak told the final day of the Asia Security Conference in Singapore yesterday that he would meet with the commander of US forces in the Pacific, Admiral Thomas Fargo, this month to discuss maritime security.

Central to the issue is the Malacca Strait, the narrow shipping lane between Malaysia, Indonesia and Singapore that is vital to world trade but notorious for pirate attacks and increasingly seen as a likely terrorist target.

When asked about Malaysia's plans to reduce the terrorist threat in the region, Najib told reporters: "We should be able to be in a position in which there will be no more incidents of piracy in the Straits of Malacca. That's one".

"Secondly would be to deal with the possible... scenario in which a more lethal form of terrorist attack might occur. That would entail more exhaustive discussions between the littoral states as well as with the international community," he added.

Najib said Malaysia would expand anti-terrorism efforts with the United States in areas such as intelligence sharing and choking terrorists' financial and logistical networks.

He even floated the possibility of joint anti-terrorism military exercises.

"Thirdly would be to engage in possible exercises in the form of specific anti-piracy or anti-terrorist type of operations that certain countries may be more familiar with than us," Najib, who is also defence minister, said.

No US troops

However, he repeated Malaysia's insistence that US troops would not be allowed to join "interdiction" operations in the Malacca Strait, warning the presence of foreign forces in the region would fuel Islamic fanaticism.

"What we should avoid is the presence of foreign forces in Southeast Asia to help us deal with this threat," Najib said in a speech earlier Sunday to the conference.

"Not because we distrust those outside the region, but because foreign military presence will set us back in our ideological battle against extremism and militancy.

"The lessons of Iraq should be clear to us: ill-prepared liberators do make mistakes and the failure of good intentions can cause great damage to social and political stability."

Singapore's Co-ordinating Minister for Defence, Tony Tan, also pushed in a speech to the conference for greater multinational efforts to fight maritime security.

"Co-ordination must also mean like-minded nations working together in a united, cohesive effort against terorism," Tan said.

"A particularly important aspect of such joint action is the sharing of good intelligence. Governments across the globe must continue to exchange critical intelligece concerning terrorist movements, tactics or personnel."

Najib and Tan's comments were made against the backdrop of US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld saying on Friday while in Singapore that he hoped to have US troops fighting terrorism in Southeast Asia "pretty soon".

However Rumsfeld and Admiral Walter Doran of the US Pacific Command later said during the conference there were no plans for US forces to patrol the Malacca Strait, and that joint maritime efforts would focus mainly on intelligence.

Rumsfeld's presence at the conference, which attracted seven defence ministers and security officials from 21 countries, dominated proceedings, with his keynote speech on Saturday warning the global war on terrorism was closer to the beginning than the end.

Rumsfeld urged Asian countries to step up their efforts to boost terrorism and he met with the defence ministers from US allies Australia, South Korea and Singapore, before flying to Bangladesh on Saturday.

North Korea was another focus of the conference, with Rumsfeld cautioning that drawn-out diplomatic efforts were giving the Stalinist state time to further develop its nuclear program. - AFP