Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi today said Malaysia would never allow foreign military forces to help patrol the Malacca Straits, which is vulnerable to pirate attacks.

"Malaysia firmly believes in the principle of a country's independence, however small," Abdullah said in a speech to the ruling Umno general assembly.

"Based on that principle, Malaysia stands firm in the belief that the responsibility of ensuring the security of the waters of the Malacca Straits is ours," he told some 2,500 party leaders at the annual talks.

"We will never allow foreign military to conduct patrols in those waters," he said. "Their presence, without our approval, would be a breach that we would regard as disrespectful of our country's independence."

Malaysia has however appealed to the international community to help boost security in the straits - which is also bordered by Indonesia and Singapore - by providing equipment like surveillance aircraft.

After years of resistance to other nations becoming heavily involved in security there, deputy premier Najib Razak said in May that nations with a commercial stake in the waterway such as the United States and Japan would be asked to help in "capacity building".

The Malacca Straits is one of the world's most important stretches of water, with 50,000 ships carrying about one-third of the globe's trade passing through it each year.

However the strait, 960 kilometres long and 1.2 kilometres wide at its narrowest point, is notoriously vulnerable to pirate attacks and governments in the region also believe it is a tempting target for terrorists.