SINGAPORE - Singapore today rejected Malaysian allegations the city-state violated an Asean agreement when it turned back a probable Sars case at their land border.

The Singapore Immigration and Checkpoint Authority (ICA) said the agreement among Asean members not to refuse entry to Sars cases and treat them in the country where they arrive in applies to travellers who land at the airport.

ICA said that bilaterally, Singapore and Malaysian immigration authorities have already worked out o­n April 21 a "safe passage protocol to convey sick travellers back to the country of embarkation" and this has been in place since May 7.

Malaysia's health ministry deputy director-general Ismail Merican o­n Tuesday criticised Singapore for breaching a pledge among the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) for Sars patients to be treated in the country where they were detected.

He was referring to a move by Singapore authorities o­n May 18 to turn back a 26-year-old Malaysian man entering the republic at their common land border.

The man, who lives and works in Singapore, was going back to the city-state from Malaysia's Johor state.

Sent back in an ambulance

At the Woodlands checkpoint, he was detected with symptoms of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (Sars) and sent back to a hospital in Johor in an ambulance.

But the ICA said Merican's allegation that Singapore had contravened an agreement reached by Asean leaders during a meeting last month o­n Sars "is not correct".

It said that Merican "might have mistakenly referred to the common protocol agreed upon for air travel." The protocol was reached during a meeting of the region's airport officials in the Philippines last week.

Under that protocol, "a citizen or resident of an Asean member country arriving at the airport of another Asean member country should not be refused entry due to a suspected Sars infection" and should be allowed "to seek medical treatment within the host country," the ICA said.

Singapore has 28 Sars deaths out of 206 cases, while Malaysia has two fatalities. - AFP