Small tankers seen at most risk in Malacca Strait

SINGAPORE, May 23 (Reuters) Small liquid gas or chemical tankers sailing the Malacca Strait, one of the world's busiest shipping lanes, face the biggest risk of a terror attack, a Singapore thinktank said today.

A paper from the Institute of Defense and Strategic Studies also said local shipping was more likely to come under attack from terrorists or pirates than mainline traffic.

Concern has increased in recent years that terrorists may hit shipping, or use ships as floating bombs in the Strait, which carries some 40 per cent of the world's trade, including 80 per cent of the energy supplies of Japan and China.

''Relatively few actual attacks occur on large mainline through traffic vessels...For example, of the actual attacks in 2005, only two were on through traffic vessels,'' the report said.

The International Maritime Bureau has said there were 12 piracy attacks in the Strait last year.

The report called on the three littoral states -- Malaysia, Indonesia and Singapore -- to accept assistance from other countries that have offered operational assistance in the past, including Australia, China, India, Japan and the United States.

Malaysia and Indonesia have been strongly opposed to any foreign military involvement in policing the strait, citing concerns over territorial sovereignty.

The institute said the most common form of attack was robbery, and that local vessels were most at risk due to smaller ships and crews as well as their proximity to coastal waters away from high traffic areas.

The Strait is only about three miles wide at its narrowest point.

The report also concluded that there was a low probability of a high impact terrorist attack and that it had found little evidence of links between terrorists and pirates.

''Due to the relative vulnerability of smaller and slower vessels, the greatest threat to a port might in fact come from a small LPG (liquefied petroleum gas) or chemical tanker rather than the larger vessels, which tend to attract the most security attention at present,'' the report said.

REUTERS CH VA VV0957