Their data should help inform policies to stop more damage to reefs in Malaysia, home to some of the world's top dive sites.

"It's the epicentre, the core of coral reef biodiversity - it beats Australia hands down," Peter Raines, founder and manager of Coral Cay Conservation told a news conference, referring to a reef system encompassing parts of the Philippines and Indonesia.

The British group, which has run similar projects in Belize, Honduras, the Red Sea, Tonga and Fiji, plans for a three-year survey in Malaysia should the pilot phase succeed, Raines said.

Malaysia is intent on drawing in more tourists as a way of diversifying its export-driven economy away from over-dependence on electronics manufacturing, palm oil and oil and gas.

It attracted nearly 13 million visitors in 2001, though more than half were on multiple trips from neighbouring Singapore.

Malaysia's coral reefs, which include the spectacular Sipadan island off the coast of Borneo in east Malaysia, have suffered from ill-advised development, siltation from logging activities on land, overfishing and marine pollution.

Andrew Sebastian, executive officer with the Malaysian Nature Society, said the peninsula's west coast reefs were already badly damaged and worried of similar problems looming elsewhere.