Malaysia today said it will discuss liberalising the lucrative Kuala Lumpur-Singapore air route for budget airlines at a regional transport ministers' meeting in Bangkok this week.

Transport Minister Chan Kong Choy said he would meet with his Singaporean counterpart, Raymond Lim, on the issue during the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) ministerial meeting Thursday.

"We will be meeting each other in Bangkok. We will not go into details as we will allow our officers from the two countries to meet in the first quarter of this year," he said, according to the state Bernama news agency.

Malaysian budget carrier AirAsia said in December it was optimistic about securing rights to fly the lucrative Singapore-Kuala Lumpur route by early 2007.

AirAsia has long campaigned for access to the route, arguing that the government must reduce protection for the loss-making national carrier Malaysia Airlines.

Flag carriers Malaysia Airlines and Singapore Airlines operate more than 200 flights per week on the monopolised route under a 34-year-old bilateral air services agreement. A round trip costs about RM900 ringgit.

Last year, Asean transport ministers agreed that by the end of 2008 there would be free passage of capital-to-capital flights among member countries, a declaration which also applies to budget airlines.