Canada's navy could consider helping to secure the strategic Malacca Strait, a naval commander said during a port stop.

The waterway between Singapore and neighbouring Indonesia and Malaysia carries about one-third of global trade, including about 11 million barrels of oil daily.

More than 60,000 ships used the strait in 2005, and traffic volume is forecast to double by 2020, according to Malaysian estimates.

Regional navies grouped in the Western Pacific Naval Symposium have discussed the responsibilities of Indonesia, Singapore and Malaysia but also of "other international navies in providing for security of the Strait of Malacca," Commander Darren Hawco told reporters Friday aboard the frigate HMCS Ottawa .

"This represents an example of what our Canadian navy could consider contributing," Hawco said, emphasising that he was expressing a personal opinion.

Canada is an observer in the Western Pacific Naval Symposium.

Whose responsibility?

The three nations bordering the Malacca Strait conduct joint sea and air patrols but last month, Malaysia's Transport Minister Chan Kong Choy said maintaining security in the strait was costing those countries millions of dollars every year.

"The responsibility to keep the strait safe, secure and clean shouldn't be only the sole responsibility of the littoral states. The user states should also ... contribute," Chan said

In addition to maritime "terrorism" and piracy, littoral states also had to worry about ship accidents and marine pollution, he said.

Hawco said a Canadian naval contribution to strait security would be consistent with his country's national security policy, one plank of which calls for Canada to contribute to international security.

HMCS Ottawa is in Singapore en route to the Gulf region as part of a United States Navy amphibious Expeditionary Strike Group, participating in what the navy calls "the global war on terrorism."