08/07/2008 (Bernama), Kuala Lumpur - Malaysia, the world's largest palm oil producer, will neither stop nor increase its palm oil production but rather raise yields of the vegetable oil through research and development, Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi said here Tuesday.

The move, said the prime minister, would not in any way, jeopardise land used to grow food crops so as not to worsen food scarcity.

"We do not need new areas and we anticipate that what we are doing today for Malaysia and I believe, Indonesia too, can increase palm oil production by 30 per cent.

"And, we have also found some other technologies recently, discovered through collaboration with some R&D (research and development) set-ups that can raise output.

"There is also the possibility of increasing it to 50 per cent with the same acreage," he said, during a packed press conference at the end of the Sixth Summit of the Eight Islamic Developing Countries here.

Abdullah said this when asked to comment on his call at the opening of the Summit, for a halt to the widespread conversion of arable land to produce bio-fuels as it was deepening global food scarcity and further driving up food prices.

The prime minister also said the world must not allow the zeal for energy security to come into direct conflict with the basic need for food production.

Malaysia is the world's largest palm oil producer accounting for 51 percent of world production, where 62 percent of its production is exported.

"We do not intend to stop palm oil production" he said, adding that Malaysia would continue to produce the commodity with the aim of increasing yields even with the same acreage.

"We are sure and we have done it already," he said.