Any ship providing private armed escort services to merchant vessels in the pirate-infested Malacca Straits will be detained, a top Malaysian security official warned in remarks published today.

Director of internal security Othman Talib was responding to reports earlier this month that a private security firm employing former members of elite military units had begun providing armed escorts to ships plying dangerous Asian waters.

The group, Singapore-based Background Asia Risk Solutions, has its own armour-plated vessel that accompanies boats anywhere between Sri Lanka and the South China Sea for about US$50,000 a mission, Singapore's Straits Times reported.

The company employs 60 former members of crack military units from Singapore and elsewhere, who carry out their escort missions armed with M-16 and M-4 assault rifles, the newspaper said.

Othman told the Bernama news agency that directives had been issued to all marine police commanders to detain any such boat and arrest the crew members if it encroached into Malaysian waters.

Can be charged under the ISA

The crew could be categorised as "terrorists" or "mercenaries" and charged under the Internal Security Act, he said. "They have no power in this country and it is a violation of our territorial sovereignty."

Any private security company wishing to operate in Malaysia would have to obtain a permit from his ministry, Othman said.

Malaysia's marine police were prepared to provide escort services and were already guarding Japanese-owned merchant ships which were carrying high value cargoes as they passed through the straits, he said.

At least eight pirate attacks on ships in the Malacca Straits and adjoining Singapore Straits have been recorded by the International Maritime Bureau's Piracy Reporting Centre in Malaysia since Feb 28.

The Malacca Straits, a narrow waterway slicing Indonesia's Sumatra island from mainland Southeast Asia is one of the busiest shipping lanes in the world, funnelling 50,000 vessels a year between the biggest economies of the West and the East.

A hunting ground for pirates from ancient times until today, it carries a third of global trade and half the world's oil supplies.

The ease with which pirates board slow-moving tankers and cargo ships has given rise in recent years to concerns that terrorists could be inspired to hijack an oil tanker for use as a monstrous bomb.

Malaysia has, however, rejected suggestions that the United States or other foreign navies be allowed to help patrol the strait.