Indonesian national police and Malaysian police (PDRM) pledged to step up cooperation in combating transnational crimes, Indonesian national police chief General Sutarman said here on Thursday.

The general met with his Malaysian counterpart Inspector General Tan Sri Khalid Abu Bakar at the Indonesian police headquarters on Thursday, saying that the crimes are a serious threat faced by Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) member countries.

"We have had a relationship with Malaysia, it is police to police and has been long implemented in addressing problems in the region," General Sutarman said at the police headquarters.

During the meeting, the two sides discussed ways to resolve transnational crimes, Sutarman said.

"We discussed transnational crimes, including illegal migrants, human trafficking, people smuggling, arms smuggling and drug smuggling," he said.

Such cooperation was badly needed as many Indonesian nationals are working in Malaysia and vice versa, the general said.

Going forward, the police cooperation has to be persistently boosted, he said.

"I am going to visit Malaysia in the near future to strengthen this cooperation," said Sutarman, while declining to elaborate further.

On his part, the Malaysian inspector general said that the bilateral cooperation must be jointly stepped up for the benefit of the people of both countries.

Indonesia and Malaysia had well cooperated in fighting terrorism in 2000s, especially in capturing two terrorist top figures, bomb expert Dr. Azhari Husain, and Noordin Moh. Top, a coordinator and recruiter of militants.