The risk of terrorists seizing ships for a September 11-style attack is overblown, security experts said yesterday, a day before US-mandated rules take effect to monitor vessels and cargoes entering American ports.

　　Richard Davey, a consultant for the British government's MI5 intelligence agency, said worst-case fears have recently driven security policy, and that ordinary piracy is a far greater threat to shipping than terrorist attacks.

　　"The fact that a scenario has been thought of does not mean it is a threat," Davey said in a speech at a security conference organized by the International Maritime Bureau, which monitors attacks on ships.

　　The meeting of law enforcement officials, shipping executives and diplomats from 33 nations comes amid fears that terrorists could attack ships in the Straits of Malacca, a crucial waterway troubled by pirates.

　　One-third of the world's trade and half its oil supplies pass through the narrow waterway between Malaysia, Singapore and Indonesia's Sumatra island, bound for industrial powers like Japan, South Korea and China.

　　Feared scenarios include militants hijacking a vessel and sinking it to block shipping, blowing up a tanker in a populated area, or releasing biological or chemical agents on a cruise ship.

　　Security officials at the conference have said there's no evidence that pirates have linked up with al-Qaida or its Southeast Asian ally, Jemaah Islamiyah.

　　"Discussions challenged the growing hype in respect of an imminent maritime terrorist attack, whilst acknowledging that it remains a possibility," delegates said in a statement issued at the end of the conference.

　　Malaysia's marine police chief, Abdul Rahman Ahmad, said the region can't rule out a terrorist-pirate alliance.

　　(The Associated Press)