SINGAPORE, Aug. 22 (Xinhua) -- Singapore will not take part in a U.S. plan to test out full security scanning of containers at the Singapore port.

    A statement by the Singapore Transport Ministry said on Friday, the U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) has been working with several foreign ports to assess the feasibility and challenges of 100 percent scanning of containers under a trial called the Secure Freight Initiative (SFI).

    Singapore had agreed to work with the U.S. authority on the trial to test the feasibility in a major hub port. This was scheduled to start in the second half of the year.

    But the U.S. authority studied trial results and feedback from ports involved in a pilot stage of the scanning project, and then decided in April that it should focus only on high-risk trade corridors, given the limited resources available to all governmental and private sector operators.

    "The U.S. CBP and Government of Singapore have agreed not to proceed with the SFI trial in Singapore," said the statement.

    And both sites decided that they "shall work together to explore alternative approaches towards enhancing container and trade security through risk management and a total supply chain security approach."