Wellington, Nov 6 NZPA - Fonterra says it welcomes an announcement from the Bangladesh government that the company's Anlene product there has been declared free of melamine contamination.

Independent tests by the Health Sciences Authority in Singapore on the milkpowder came back negative, confirming earlier test results and clearance from the New Zealand Food Safety Authority that the product was safe, Fonterra said.

In Dhaka, the New Nation newspaper reported the five main milkpowder marketers in the country whose brands were found free from toxic melamine contamination, are now waiting on a High Court order to allow sale and display of their products to resume.

S A Mallick, the managing director of New Zealand Dairy Products Bangladesh, told the newspaper that business rivals might have stirred up fears about a melamine scandal in Bangladesh to distort the image of the Fonterra milkpowder his company sells.

He said an earlier whispering campaign had alleged that his company was selling milk taken from horses.

Initially eight brands of milkpowder were tested for melamine, including Fonterra's Anlene , and all were cleared.

But re-examination in the Food and Agriculture Organisation's Bangkok laboratory had detected melamine in three Chinese brands.

The Daily Star newspaper reported a Human Rights and Peace for Bangladesh lobby had petitioned the High Court asking it to released details of all the laboratory tests done on Bangladesh milkpowders.

It was the same lobby that originally asked Justice Syed Mahmud Hossain and Justice Quamrul Islam Siddiqui to stop sale and display of all eight brands of milkpowder tested by Dhaka university.

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