JAKARTA - Indonesia and Malaysia will sign a new agreement next week to regulate the hiring and repatriation of migrant workers in Malaysia, the two countries said today.

Visiting Malaysian Foreign Minister Syed Hamid Albar said the memorandum of understanding would be signed in Jakarta on Monday by Malaysian Human Resources Minister Fong Chan Onn and his Indonesian counterpart Jacob Nuwa Wea.

Syed Hamid had earlier held several hours of talks with Indonesian Foreign Minister Hassan Wirayuda on bilateral and regional issues.

Wirayuda said the agreement would mean fewer cases of exploitation of Indonesian workers in Malaysia and would focus on ways to improve educational opportunities for their children.

He said there were an estimated 1.1 million Indonesian workers in Malaysia, of whom 600,000 were working illegally.

Malaysia is home to an estimated one million illegal immigrants. It introduced tough new laws in August 2002 and nearly half a million illegal immigrants were repatriated during a four-month amnesty period that year. - AFP