United States customs officials will be deployed to the Tanjung Pelepas port in southern Johor to screen US-bound container cargo for terrorism risks, the US embassy said yesterday.

The move comes against a background of increased concern over the possibility of terrorist attacks in the Malacca Straits, a narrow shipping lane along the Malaysian peninsular which carries about half the world's oil supplies and a third of global trade.

The screening, which began last year at Port Klang, falls under the US-led Container Security Initiative (CSI), which 18 countries around the world have signed up to, the embassy said in a statement.

Containers examined

Under the agreement, US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) officers will work with Malaysian customs officials at Tanjung Pelepas near the border with Singapore to examine containers identified as potential terrorist risks.

"The primary purpose of CSI is to protect the global trading system and the trade lanes between CSI ports and the US," said US Customs and Border Protection Commissioner Robert C Bonner.

"We recognise the importance to deter and interdict any terrorist attempt to disrupt global trade or to attempt to make use of commercial shipping to further their own schemes," said Abdul Halil Abdul Mutalib, director-general of Malaysian customs.

Mainly Muslim Malaysia is holding more than 80 alleged Islamic militants, many suspected of membership in the al-Qaeda-linked Jemaah Islamiyah regional organisation responsible for a series of bombings in neighbouring Indonesia.