Public housing projects will be stepped up in the country with a view to overcoming the squatter problem by 2005, Housing and Local Government Minister Datuk Seri Ong Ka Ting said yesterday.

He said houses being built under the Public Housing Scheme in Kuala Lumpur had exceeded the number of squatter houses there.

Ong was speaking to reporters after the launching of World Habitat Day 2001 by Deputy Prime Minister Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi here.

Ong said the Housing and Local Government Ministry was coordinating the implementation of the Public Housing Scheme in the Federal Territory, involving 35,000 units.

''More such schemes would be implemented in the other states under the Eighth Malaysia Plan,'' he said. — Bernama