KUALA LUMPUR (Dow Jones)--The Malaysian government hopes to issueregulations on biodiesel by the middle of this year, Peter Chin Sahkui,minister for plantation industries and commodities, said Thursday.Speaking at the annual price outlook conference organized by BursaMalaysia Derivatives, Chin said the government has agreed to look into theuse of palm oil diesel and is in the midst of deciding whether to exportthe product or use it locally."We are working on the infrastructure and regulations that need to beput up. I hope it will be somewhere in the middle of this year that we canhave biodiesel regulations put up," Chin said.Biodiesel is produced from various vegetable oils. Malaysia is planningto use its abundant supplies of palm oil to produce biodiesel.With fuel prices rising, the government has been actively consideringthe use of biodiesel as a fuel substitute.The plan is to blend the product with regular diesel for use inautomobiles or export it as methyl ester.The industry has been looking forward to the government's plans forbiodiesel, as production of biodiesel is expected to help reduce domesticpalm oil stocks and support prices.Chin didn't make any price forecasts for the year or provide palm oilproduction estimates.