The police have begun cracking down on illegal immigrants from Indonesia living in squatter camps ahead of a major Islamic summit meeting here next month, local media reported today.

In the latest raid, 167 Indonesians were arrested and more than 100 shanties torn down in a pre-dawn blitz ysterday on a settlement near the administrative capital of Putrajaya, venue for the Organisation of the Islamic Conference (OIC) summit.

Some 200 policemen and immigration officers equipped with bulldozers participated in the swoop on a 10-acre plot of forest land where the Indonesians had built a settlement with 10 canteens, cable TV, a volleyball court, telephone shop and a hair salon, The Star said.

Police spokesman Jamaludin Khalid told reporters that a total of 667 illegal immigrants had been arrested over the past five days as part of an operation to clear Putrajaya of illegal immigrant settlements ahead of the summit on Oct 16-18.

Construction workers

Many of the illegal immigrants worked in the construction sector in the area, he said.

Malaysia's construction industry was particularly hard hit last year by a crackdown on illegal immigrants ahead of the introduction of harsh new penalties including whipping and imprisonment.

Some 468,000 illegal immigrants were reported to have returned home voluntarily during a four-month amnesty period, almost half of them construction workers.

Illegal Indonesian immigrants made up 70 percent of the building industry's 500,000 foreign workers before the crackdown, according to the Master Builders Association of Malaysia. - AFP