Forestry Minister Patrick Pruaitch took out advertisements in PNG's two main daily newspapers to deny Greenpeace claims that Rimbunan Hijau had been logging without legal permits.

"All logging operations in the country are legal," Pruaitch said in the advertisements which appeared over the weekend.

The government took its stand after Greenpeace representatives in several countries including Australia, New Zealand, Hong Kong and Japan called for a boycott of timber products exported from PNG by Rimbunan Hijau.

In a report issued early this month, Greenpeace alleged the Malaysian group was exporting illegally cut rainforest timber.

Bribery and corruption allegations have surrounded logging in Papua New Guinea for decades.

Rimbunan Hijau has interests in companies that control a large portion of the country's logging operations and timber export business.

Pruaitch said suggestions that illegally felled timber was being exported were "libellous and malicious" and defended the Rimbunan Hijau Group as "one of the most committed logging companies in PNG".

He contrasted the company with Australian and New Zealand firms he said had "bailed out when the going got tough" and abandoned their PNG operations.

Log exports from PNG, which are mainly shipped to China, Japan and South Korea, have plunged in value from around 480 million US dollars in 1993 to around 100 million dollars last year.

TERRA.WIRE