Malaysia, Indonesia and Singapore, with new partner Thailand, will begin air patrols over the strategic Malacca Strait to curb piracy and increase security, their defence force chiefs said today.

The three littoral states of Malaysia, Indonesia and Singapore have already begun coordinated sea patrols but the chiefs said in a joint statement that there was still "room for improvement to strengthen the arrangement."

Along with Thailand, which attended the talks for the first time, they agreed to establish two working groups to set out details of the coordinated air patrols, and enhanced sea patrols.

The initiative will extend "from the northern gateway of the Strait of Malacca, involving neighbouring Thailand, to Singapore Strait in the south," they said at the end of two days of talks here.

"The area extends to the Thailand territories so the Thais are keen to come in as well and help out," a defence official told AFP .

The four military chiefs said it was in their mutual interest "to come to a consensus in working out amicable procedures on how best we can keep the Strait of Malacca free from any kind of threats without compromising our soverereignty."

The defence chiefs also reiterated that while other nations using the waterway were welcome to provide assistance, security remained the responsibility of the countries which border the straits.

"Certainly the active players, the guys that are pivotal in deciding our fate is we (ourselves)," Malaysia's defence chief Mohamad Anwar Mohamad Nor told reporters.

US, Australia, Japan to cooperate?

Malaysia's Foreign Minister Syed Hamid Albar on Sunday raised the prospect of cooperation with the United States, Australia and Japan to combat piracy in the strait provided territorial rights were retained.

The Malacca Strait is one of the world's most important waterways, with 50,000 ships carrying about one-third of the globe's trade passing through it each year.

However the strait, 960 kilometres long and 1.2 kilometres wide at its narrowest point, is notoriously vulnerable to pirate attacks and governments in the region also believe it is a tempting target for terrorists.

News reports have said that Singapore is playing host to private security firms that are allowed to provide armed guards on vessels in the country's waters, but its defence chief Ng Yat Chung insisted there was no such agreement.

"There are no private companies operating in Singapore, we would not allow that. Basically in Singapore we don't carry arms, full stop. And we enforce that very vigorously," Ng said.

"I honestly don't understand how any more arms on the ship is going to help the situation," he said.

Foreign ministers from Indonesia, Malaysia and Singapore were also meeting Tuesday, on Indonesia's Batam island, to agree a common stand on ensuring safety in the strait, the official Bernama news agency said.

"If we cannot find a common stand, at least we should be able to know and respect each other's stand," Indonesian Foreign Minister Hassan Wirayuda said late Monday when the talks began, according to Bernama .