Malaysian Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi told reporters after meeting his Singapore counterpart, Goh Chok Tong, that both nations had to think "out of the box" to find a solution to their many unresolved issues.

Abdullah, who was making his first visit to Singapore since taking over from Mahathir Mohamad on October 31 last year, stressed the two nations should try to work together through dialogue, with arbitration a last resort.

Several disputes between the neighbours have been before international arbitration bodies, including one over the ownership of a tiny islet and another over land reclamation works carried out by Singapore.

"I have suggested to Prime Minister Goh Chok Tong that I would prefer that we discuss," Abdullah told a joint press conference at the state Istana complex.

"I feel that we should not allow these bilateral issues to remain unresolved or later on to pass over to somebody else or a third party or to arbitration.

"We have to find some other ways, some other strategies in order to resolve all these issues and I am happy that Prime Minister Chok Tong has said okay, he is agreeable to suggestions and was asking me what are the specific things that I would like to suggest."

Goh, who has been Singapore's prime minister since 1990, also spoke in an optimistic tone.

"I had a very good, frank and friendly exchange with Prime Minister Abdullah Badawi," Goh said.

"We took advantage of his courtesy visit to review our bilateral relations and basically both of us are determined to find ways to put our bilateral relations on the right track.

"It's important that we do so not just for ourselves but also for ASEAN."

Singapore and Malaysia are among the founding members of the 10-country Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) grouping.

Goh said he had invited Badawi to the city-state for non-working visits and indicated both leaders would communicate directly more often over the phone.

"I have of course invited Prime Minister Abdullah to come down to Singapore socially and when he comes down socially, we would just have social talk," he said.

"There will be more use of the telephones in the future... not necessarily just for issues.. I think also for friendly chitchats."

Abdullah, who is regarded as having a more genial political style than the occasionally confrontational Mahathir, indicated he would accept Goh's invitation to return to Singapore.

"I hope to be able to come back again and then talk things over in more detail," Abdullah said. "We must move forward."

The Southeast Asian neighbours have had an at-times extremely testy relationship that began before the city-state left the Malaysian federation in 1965 in favour of independence.

Efforts to resolve a wide range of bilateral problems ground to a halt when Malaysia, under Mahathir, called off talks in 2002 over the especially prickly issue of the price of raw water it charges resource-scarce Singapore.

The official Malaysian stance under Mahathir was that the water issue had to be negotiated independently from other bilateral disputes. Singapore wanted water to be included in talks on a package of disputes.

Among the other thorny issues are the use of Malaysian air space by Singaporean military aircraft, the ownership of a rocky islet, a prospective bridge linking the countries and Malaysia's claim to railway land in the city-state.

They are also locked in a legal battle over land reclamation works being carried out by Singapore in waters between their borders, with the matter before the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea.

Abdullah was in Singapore for a one-day visit as part of a tour of the 10 ASEAN countries traditionally undertaken by newly installed regional leaders.
                                                      Home