Energy, Water and Communications Minister Shaziman Abu Mansor said a reduction was necessary as charges were exceptionally high.

'We plan to reduce roaming charges with Singapore first,' he was quoted as saying by the Sunday Star newspaper.

Mr Shaziman said his counterparts from the Association of South-east Asian Nations (ASEAN) had agreed to the plan during a meeting on Indonesia?s resort island of Bali last month.

'Reducing the roaming rates will also reduce the burden on the tens of thousands of Malaysians who commute to Singapore daily,' he said.

'We do not want them to be paying exceptionally high roaming charges when their workplace (Singapore) is only a few kilometres away from their homes in Johor,' he added.

Mr Shaziman said his Singaporean counterpart Lee Boon Yang had hailed the proposal.

Malaysia's top mobile operator Maxis charges 1.50 ringgit (S$0.63) per minute for a local registered cell phone user when he uses his phone in Singapore and as high as 9.00 ringgit per minute in Cambodia.

For local calls Maxis charges about 30 sen per minute. -- AFP