Jakarta: India has said it is ready to provide security in the Malacca Strait, one of the world's busiest sea-lanes and a victim of rising high seas piracy.

External Affairs Minister Natwar Singh, who is in Jakarta to attend the ASEAN plus 3 meetings and the ASEAN Regional Forum (ARF), was reacting to a request made by the three littoral States Singapore, Malaysia and Indonesia.

Singh said that it was in India's national interests to ensure the Strait remained a crime free sea-lane.

"From our side it is affirmative...details can be worked out but in principal 'Yes'," Singh told the local 'Jakarta Post'.

Singh said such cooperation is not new to India. "We are neighbours. Nicobar Island and the Northern part of Sumatra are only 80 miles apart and the Malacca Strait is equally important strategically," he added.

The US is likely to raise the piracy issue and possible threats from terrorists along the Strait during the ASEAN Regional Forum tomorrow (Jul 2, 2004).

Singapore, Indonesia and Malaysia have agreed on joint patrols in the 805 km long Malacca Strait through which most Japanese and Chinese imported oil and one third of world's traded goods pass.

Malaysia and Indonesia have rejected a US proposal to conduct joint patrols in the Strait.

India and Indonesia began joint naval patrols off the Andaman Islands in the Bay of Bengal to check poaching, smuggling and drug trafficking in 2002.