The head of Indonesia's armed forces today said he had no knowledge of an agreement with Malaysia to limit their naval presence in a disputed maritime area to a single warship each.

General Endriartono Sutarto said he had received no confirmation of claims by Malaysian Deputy Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak that the two sides have agreed to scale back their fleets in the Sulawesi sea off eastern Borneo.

"There has been so far no report," Sutarto, accompanied by Navy Chief Vice Admiral Slamet Subiyanto, told reporters.

"It is a must for us to be present there," he said when asked whether the navy would reduce its deployment to one vessel.

Najib, who is also defence minister, said that the agreement had been reached at a recent meeting between the Malaysian and Indonesian naval chiefs.

But Subiyanto also said he had no report of such agreement.

Accidental knocks

Earlier this month warships from the two countries brushed sides near the Karang Unarang reef east of Borneo island, where Indonesia has built a lighthouse to strengthen its territorial claims in the disputed region.

Both countries have lodged official protests with each other over the incident.

Tensions have been high in the area after Malaysia granted an oil concession in the region on Feb 16 to Anglo-Dutch firm Shell. Jakarta says the blocks awarded by state oil firm Petronas are not in territory controlled by Malaysia.

Officials from both sides begun negotiations to settle the overlapping claims to the area last month and are due to meet again in May.

The two countries have locked horns over the region before. A dispute over the ownership of two islands ended in December 2002 with an International Court of Justice ruling that the islands belong to Malaysia.