Admiral Bernard Kent Sondakh, in an interview in Monday's Tempo news magazine, said there were far fewer piracy cases in the strait and elsewhere off Indonesia than reported by the International Maritime Bureau (IMB) and others.

The top military commanders of Malaysia, Indonesia and Singapore, which border the strait, are due Tuesday to sign an agreement authorising joint patrols to combat piracy and possible seaborne terrorist attacks.

"It has to be admitted that there is piracy in the Malacca Strait but their number is not as much as is being reported by the IMB," Sondakh said.

He said that while the IMB reported numerous cases of sea piracy in the Malacca Strait in 2003, the Indonesian navy only recorded some 20.

"I conclude that there is a large strategy to make our waters look bad, as if the Indonesian navy is weak and the level of sea crime there is on the rise," the officer said.

If Indonesia were seen as incapable of safeguarding its seas, there would be a pretext for foreign intervention, he said, citing the internationalisation of the Suez Canal issue in the mid-1950s.

Data from the IMB's Piracy Reporting Centre in Kuala Lumpur shows that Indonesian waters remained the world's most pirate-infested in the first three months of this year, accounting for 21 of the 79 attacks worldwide.

Sondakh said fears that the security issue could be internationalised prompted his determination to build strong security coordination among Indonesia, Malaysia and Singapore.

About half the world's oil supplies pass through the Malacca Strait. The US and Singapore fear that terrorists could hijack an oil or gas tanker and use it as a floating bomb in a maritime version of the September 11 attacks.

But Washington recently backed away from suggestions that US forces might help patrol the waterway after it raised hackles in Indonesia and Malaysia.

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