Singapore is interested in importing shale gas from the United States, and Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong raised the issue during his visit to the White House earlier this year, said Foreign Affairs Minister K. Shanmugam on Thursday.

Speaking to business leaders and policymakers from the South Asian region, he said: "When the PM was on his official visit to the US, we raised it and we said we would be very happy to receive gas from the US."

Mr Shanmugam was responding to a question from Professor Kishore Mahbubani, dean of the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy, on the impact of the US' discovery of shale gas on the region.

Pressed on whether the US wants to sell its shale gas to Singapore, the minister quipped: "At the end of the day, money knows no nationality."

Mr Shanmugam was part of a panel discussion on energy and connectivity in the region at the South Asian Diaspora Convention at Suntec City.

Shale gas production has soared in the US in recent years thanks to the use of hydraulic fracturing technology, or fracking, to tap gas trapped in impermeable shale rock.

Mr Shanmugam said it will drive US competitiveness by lowering domestic energy costs, and will revitalise the manufacturing industry.

The demand for energy, and other economic forces, means that "economic logic" will propel the Asia region towards greater connectivity, he added.