KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia has dropped 'Pulau', the Malay term for island, from its name for Pedra Branca.

The Malaysian government, which has always called the island Pulau Batu Puteh, is now calling it just Batu Puteh, reported the Chinese-language paper Oriental Daily News.

Announcing the change at a press conference earlier this week, Foreign Minister Rais Yatim said it was doing so as it considered the territory as having failed to meet the internationally recognised criteria for an island, that is, land inhabited by humans that had economic activity.

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