Rosnani said Malay! sia was a party to the Basel Convention and hence it was required that the hazardous waste be shipped back to the source of origin.

"But we are concern about the risk involved during trans-boundry movement of the waste. We are trying to communicate with Taiwan's Environmental Protection Administration (EPA) to find a solution," she said.

On Monday, Taiwan said it was prepared take back the toxic industrial waste exported to Malaysia after the environmental authorities found the import licence for the shipment was bogus.

The EPA received a tip-off in January that a Taipei-based group had been exporting the toxic waste to its Malaysian partner with a fake Malaysian import licence, an EPA official said.

The Malaysian government confirmed that the licence provided by the Malaysian company was false and the EPA immediately called a halt to the export, EPA Solid Waste Control Bureau chief Chen H siung-wen told reporters.

Local firm slammed

The company, Hung-Yiu Technology of Environmental Protection Co, had already transported 11,879 tonnes of the waste, which contains high levels of heavy metals, to Malaysia, he said.

Hung-Yiu general manager TK Cheng said his company was itself a victim of the scandal as it had not known the import license was fake.

Foreign Minister Syed Hamid Albar, a lawmaker from the southern Johor state, criticised the local company for bringing in the waste.

"I think we should not be bring in anything that will endanger our environment from other countries. We have enough of our own toxic waste that we want to handle," he told reporters.

Rosnani said the solid industrial waste were being stored in a factory in Labis, Johor.