JAKARTA, June 21 (Xinhuanet) -- Indonesian Vice President Jusuf Kalla called for continued cooperation among Malaysia, Indonesia and Singapore to combat piracy in the Malacca Strait, an officer was quoted Tuesday by the Media Indonesia as saying.

    "The vice president supports this seminar, because the issue of (piracy in) the Malacca Strait has not been settled," said M. Kamaluddin, chairman of the Committee for the Seminar of Navigation in Malacca Strait, after meeting the vice president at his office on Monday.

    He was referring to a seminar on the security of Malacca Straitto to be held in August.

    On the same occasion, Chairman of Indonesian National Shipowners Association (INSA) Oentoro Surya said that the piracy in the narrow strait causes 100 million US dollars loss for the country annually.

    Meanwhile, President of the US-Indonesian Society (Usindo) Alphonse F. La Porta reaffirmed a common interest to maintain the security in the strait in a bid to protect the ships from attacks of pirates.

    He said that the strait was important for the bordered countries, such as Indonesia, Malaysia, and Singapore.

    He also called on a number of donor countries to provide assistance to the effort of securing the strait.

    "We need more aid from donor countries to guard the waters," hesaid.

    However, Porta refused the US plan to deploy troops in the strait.

    Some 50,000 ships, carrying one third of the world's trade materials, pass through the 965-kilometer-long strait each year.

    Through the strait, tankers carry oil from the Middle East to resource-poor countries in Asia, while cargo ships carry manufactured goods from Asia to Africa and Europe. Enditem