A 76-year-old man who was orphaned in British Malaya during World War II, but then spent most of his life in Bangladesh, said Monday he now wanted to go home.

Red Cross officials in Singapore and Malaysia are trying to locate any of Shahadat Hossain Ana's remaining relatives by taking a photograph of him out into communities to see if anyone recognises him.

"I am now frail and will die anytime. But I want to die in my home country. I also want to take my children back to Malaya," Ana told AFP .

Ana was found at the age of eight by the British Army, possibly in the part of British Malaya that is now Singapore, and was handed to a Bangladeshi driver, Abdul Latif, who was working for the allied forces.

Latif took Ana back to his native Bangladesh, which was then part of British India, where he lived for the next seven decades, eventually marrying and becoming a father.

Ana spent all his time in Bangladesh in a remote north-eastern village working for Latif's family as an illiterate household help and a farm-hand.

Red Cross tracing officer Shirin Sultana said: "After a request from our headquarters in Geneva, the Red Cross is trying to establish where Ana was found and orphaned.

"The chances of finding any of his remaining family members are very slim," she told AFP .

- AFP