UPDATE 1-Malaysia's Sime Darby marks land for rice plantation

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KUALA LUMPUR, June 16 (Reuters) - Malaysia's Sime Darby (SIME.KL), the world's largest listed palm oil planter, has identified 7,000 hectares of land to be used for planting rice, its chairman Musa Hitam said on Monday.

"We have identified something like 7,000 hectares in Sarawak to start," he told reporters at the sidelines of an economic forum.

"The objective is that as we go on, we will increase it."

Sarawak is an eastern state located on Borneo island.

Musa declined to provide any financial details of the project, saying it was still at an initial stage.

(Reporting by Soo Ai Peng)