A crackdown which sent hundreds of thousands of illegal workers fleeing from Malaysia has left industries with crippling labour shortages which could hurt economic growth, reports and officials said today.

The government has called a special meeting on the issue for next week, Home Affairs Minister Azmi Khalid told AFP .

The move comes after the cabinet was told Wednesday that losses run into hundreds of millions of ringgit, the New Straits Times reported.

The paper, which is close to the government, said about 200,000 workers are needed in the manufacturing sector, 150,000 in construction, 50,000 in plantations and 20,000 in the services sector.

The president of the Malaysian Malay Businessmen and Industrialists Association, Moehamad Izat, told AFP the shortage could "disturb the growth of the economy".

The labour crunch follows the departure during a three-month amnesty programme which ended on March 1 of nearly 400,000 illegal immigrants, mostly from Indonesia but also from the Philippines, Burma, Bangladesh, India and Sri Lanka.

A similar number are believed to remain in the country, but many are in hiding as the authorities are now hunting them down and dozens have been sentenced to prison terms and whipping.

Delay in process

The government had proposed that the Indonesians could return to work here legally once they had been processed in their own country, but has complained of delays in the system.

"We have given priority to Indonesians but they are delaying the processing of permits of those illegal workers who had returned to Indonesia under the amnesty programme," Deputy Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak said.

"If the delay persists, we may have to look elsewhere for our labour supply. We cannot wait any longer. Our industries are suffering due to the shortage of workers."

Najib would chair the meeting on obtaining workers from other countries including Vietnam, Sri Lanka, Pakistan, Bangladesh, China, India and Cambodia, the New Straits Times said.

A similar experience after a crackdown on illegal workers two years ago, however, showed that Indonesians are preferred by employers, partly because they speak the same language as Malaysians.

The Malaysian economy grew at its fastest pace in four years in 2004, beating even the official forecast as a gain of 5.6 percent in the December quarter took the 12 months to 7.1 percent, the central bank said last month.