The government today accused US activists of tarnishing its image at a major UN environmental meeting with a report alleging large-scale smuggling of illegal timber from Indonesia that it said was false.

The report released this month and a focus of the conference this week was based on "half-truths and ill-conceived, sweeping conclusions that were taken out of context," Primary Industries Minister Lim Keng Yaik charged.

The report, "Profiting from Plunder," was compiled by the Environmental Investigation Agency (EIA) and its Indonesian partner Telapak who said it was based on two years of investigation.

The EIA said it showed how endangered ramin wood was smuggled from Indonesia into Malaysia with false documentation to be made into furniture for export, and how local officials allegedly facilitated the illegal trade.

It urged the United States to impose trade sanctions on Malaysia.

Ramin is a blond-colored tropical hardwood native to the peatswamp forests in Indonesia and Malaysia.

Indonesia banned the export of ramin in August 2001 under the UN Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) but Malaysia has been permitted to trade in ramin with a CITES permit.

Malicious intention

Lim said the distribution of the report on the sidelines of the conference of parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) and moves by the EIA and other US activists to seek sanctions indicated "malicious intention" to pressure Malaysia to ban the ramin trade.

Ramin production in Malaysia is sustainably managed and there was "no danger of ramin becoming extinct," he said.

A ban would undermine Malaysia's RM5.7 billion furniture industry and its timber exports because it is difficult to tell ramin apart from at least five other wood species, including rubberwood which is used as raw material for 80 percent of Malaysian furniture, he said.

Malaysia and Indonesia are the world's top two exporters of tropical timber and last year exported timber and timber-related products worth RM16.5 billion.

"I don't think the US administration will be so stupid as to approve the sanctions because the allegations are not real. It is ill-intentioned to pick on us at this time," Lim told a news conference.

"Can you blame me for suspecting there is an ulterior motive whether by Indonesia or other exporting countries?" he asked, noting that Indonesia has been lobbying the European Union to "ban import of Malaysian timber because it was tainted with (illegal) Indonesian timber."

Fake documents

Lim said Malaysia had banned the import of logs and square logs from Indonesia to help it battle illegal logging but slammed Jakarta for a lack of will to resolve the problem and lax law enforcement.

"I am angry and running out of patience of trying to work with Indonesia. They are not doing anything and their agency is pointing their finger at us," he said.

Lim told AFP he had been pushing Indonesia to revive bilateral forestry talks which had been abandoned for five years and Jakarta recently agreed to an informal meeting. No date has been set.

He denied claims that his officials were involved in producing fake documents but said greedy traders had used false certification from Papua New Guinea, the Solomon Islands and Burma to smuggle in illegal timber.

There had been 122 arrests involving illegal timber trade, including 12 cases involving ramin, and offenders faced a mandatory jail sentence, he said.

Lim said he would meet the EIA next Wednesday to clear the air.

"We have these foreigners who think they know best and that they are God-sent messiahs out to save the world... Don't sensationalise and think that we are a greedy banana republic," he warned.

Indonesia is home to 10 percent of the world's remaining tropical forests but an area larger than Taiwan is being destroyed each year through illegal logging, the EIA report said. - AFP