The government has bowed to pressure from environmental groups and will ban imports of sawn timber from neighbouring Indonesia from next month, a senior minister said yesterday.

Primary industries minister Lim Keng Yaik said the ban was o­n squared Indonesian logs of more than 60 square inches (390 square centimeters).

"We are taking this drastic action in the interest of Malaysia and to remove the negative perception against our timber industry," he was quoted as saying by the Bernama news agency.

Laundering centre

Lim said the government would issue import licences to importers who could show proof of where the logs were exported from.

"We will review this regulation after six months to assess its effectiveness in stopping the import of logs from Indonesia," he said.

Lim said Malaysia was forced to take this action because some international environmental watchdogs continued to accuse Malaysia of failing to take action to halt illegal logging and was acting as a laundering centre for illegal logs.

"We view this allegation seriously as we do not want the illegal Indonesian logs to jeopardise our efforts to assure our international timber buyers that timber products from Malaysia are obtained from sustainable sources," he said.

Last June, the government slapped a total ban o­n imports of logs from Indonesia in a bid to protect its furniture industry from charges it uses illegally-felled timber. However, the ban did not include sawn timber.