JAKARTA - A rare type of Indonesian timber is being illegally logged in large amounts and smuggled across the border into Malaysia every year, environmental groups said today.

Malaysian dealers slap fake labels of origin on the ramin wood - an endangered species of tropical hardwood - and re-export it to China where it is turned into household products, said the London-based Environmental Investigation Agency (EIA) and local group Telapak.

Indonesia in 2001 banned the sale of ramin and listed it in the UN Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species to stop illegal trading.

"The plundering is taking place right in front of their noses and both governments are doing very little to tackle the problem," said Hapsoro from Telapak.

"Our government is very weak in enforcing the law to at least reduce the magnitude of this problem and the Malaysian government is taking full advantage of it," he said.

'Tip of the iceberg'

Hapsoro said the problem was only "the tip of the iceberg" of deforestation in Indonesia.

Julian Newman from EIA said a type of rare wood called Merbau was also "being heavily logged" in eastern Papua province. "Ramin is only one example of many endangered species being logged all over Indonesia," he said.

Newman said both organisations also saw "direct involvement" of the military and police with local tycoons in timber-rich Indonesian provinces.

Forestry Minister Muhammad Prakosa has in the past accused Singapore and China of accepting timber which has been illegally felled in Indonesia and smuggled overseas.

Other countries say it is Indonesia's responsibility to crack down on rogue loggers.

A 2002 report by the World Resources Institute, Global Forest Watch and Forest Watch Indonesia said Indonesia was losing nearly two million hectares (4.9 million acres) of forest annually - an area half the size of Switzerland. - AFP