Private armed escort services for ships using the pirate-infested Malacca Straits are not welcome, Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi said today.

The security of seafarers and cargo in the vital shipping lane was the responsibility of the three littoral states - Malaysia, Indonesia and Singapore, Abdullah said.

"If we entrust the monitoring of security to civilian parties, something may happen and it could spark off reactions that may be difficult to control," he was quoted as saying by the official Bernama news agency.

"Our opinion is that it is better for the monitoring to be done by Malaysia, Singapore and Indonesia," the prime minister told Malaysian journalists accompanying him on an official visit to the Netherlands.

Dutch Prime Minister Jan Peter Balkenande had raised the issue of security in the straits - which carries a third of global trade - during their talks, he said.

Guards for hire

It has been reported that private security firms employing former members of elite military units have begun providing armed escorts to ships plying dangerous Asian waters.

One of the groups, Singapore-based Background Asia Risk Solutions, has its own armour-plated vessel that accompanies boats anywhere between Sri Lanka and the South China Sea for about US$50,000 a mission.

The company employs 60 former members of crack military units from Singapore and elsewhere, who carry out their escort missions armed with M-16 and M-4 assault rifles.

The Malacca Straits, a narrow waterway slicing Indonesia's Sumatra island from mainland Southeast Asia is one of the busiest shipping lanes in the world, funnelling 50,000 vessels a year between the biggest economies of the West and the East.

The ease with which pirates regularly board slow-moving tankers and cargo ships has given rise in recent years to concerns that terrorists could be inspired to hijack an oil tanker for use as a monstrous bomb.

Malaysia has, however, rejected suggestions that the United States or other foreign navies be allowed to help patrol the strait.