The water spat between Singapore and Malaysia stepped into regional waters today when Kuala Lumpur ran an advertisement in a prestigious Asian daily to present its side of the dispute.

The full page ad in the Asian Wall Street Journal was headlined: "WATER: The Singapore-Malaysia Dispute; THE FACTS", and followed similar weekend action in the four major Kuala Lumpur daily newspapers.

The ad claimed Singapore made a profit of US$174.34 million from Malaysian-supplied raw water in 2001, while Kuala Lumpur was paid just US$629,000 under the deal.