Malaysia and Indonesia have no specific agreement to limit their naval presence in a disputed maritime area to a single warship each, Defence Minister Najib Abdul Razak said today.

Navy commanders from the two countries had agreed to reduce tension in the area and ensure that there was no repeat of an incident in which their warships brushed sides, Najib said.

"But there is no specific understanding that only one ship is to be deployed there at any one time," he told the official Bernama news agency.

Najib was responding to a statement by Indonesia's armed forces chief General Endriartono Sutarto denying a report that such an agreement had been reached.

No specific accord

Although there was no specific accord, the Indonesian navy was seen to have deployed only one patrol vessel in the area in tandem with the spirit to reduce tension and the Malaysian navy would reciprocate, he said.

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.