Japan has donated a training ship to Malaysia's new coastguard force to help improve security in the pirate-prone Malacca Strait, officials said today.

The ship from Japan's Nippon Foundation will be delivered by end-April, said a spokesperson for the Malaysian Maritime Enforcement Agency (MMEA).

Foundation executive director Masazumi Nagamatsu told a conference of Asian coastguard chiefs late yesterday that littoral states should take help from other nations which had the technology and capacity to do so.

"If they have the ability, then why not, because it safeguards the interest of the home country," he was quoted as saying by the Bernama news agency.

"For citizens and residents of Asia, the Malacca Strait is a vital lifeline and yet it has become a hazardous area for attacks by pirates," he said urging user states to share the costs of safeguarding the strait.

Almost all Japan's imported oil comes through the waterway.

45 lighthouses

The foundation has already built 45 lighthouses in the strait and spent 100 million dollars in navigational assistance.

The MMEA has obtained two modified Beechcraft aircraft from the Malaysian air force and two sensor-equipped CN-235 reconnaissance aircraft for day and night patrol.

The MMEA began operations last November to boost security in the strait, which separates the Indonesian island of Sumatra and Peninsular Malaysia.

It is notoriously vulnerable to pirate attacks and governments in the region believe it could also be a target for extremist groups.

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