Mas Selamat bin Kastari escaped on February 27 from a detention centre in the country, which prides itself on rigorous anti-terrorist measures. A massive security dragnet has failed to catch Kastari.

"It is a blot on the security agencies' copybook, a dent in Singapore's reputation and a reverse in keeping Singapore secure from terrorist attack," the coordinating minister for national security, Shunmugam Jayakumar, said in a speech to open a regional meeting of security experts.

Jayakumar said criticism of security officials was justified because "there must have been a serious security lapse at the detention centre."

He said that although the Internal Security Department (ISD) suffered a "major setback" when Kastari fled their custody, the ISD has a long history of successes. It broke up the local JI network with a series of arrests beginning in December 2001, he said.

Kastari had fled Singapore following that ISD operation, the home affairs ministry has said.

Born in 1961 in Singapore, Kastari was arrested on the Indonesian island of Bintan near the city-state in 2003 and sentenced by a court there to 18 months in jail.

He was later released but arrested again by Indonesian authorities in January 2006 before being handed over to Singapore.

Kastari was accused of plotting to hijack a plane in order to crash it into Singapore's Changi Airport in 2001 but was never charged. He was being held in the city-state under a law that allows for detention without trial.

Home Affairs Minister Wong Kan Seng earlier told parliament that Kastari escaped from the ISD facility after he asked to go to the toilet ahead of a visit from his relatives.

The escape is being "thoroughly investigated" by a committee of inquiry and the police criminal investigation department, Jayakumar said.

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