DHAKA, BANGLADESH - Bangladesh's biggest private airline GMG said Sunday it had been forced to suspend service on four of its six international routes due to the soaring cost of fuel.

The carrier, which had hoped to triple its activities this year, has cut flights to Bangkok, Dubai, Kathmandu and New Delhi after the price of jet fuel rose 30 percent late last month, company spokesman Nazrul Islam said.

"The four other international routes will remain suspended until we see any easing of fuel price," he said, adding the company was now only serving Kolkata in eastern India and the Malaysian capital Kuala Lumpur.

The spokesman also blamed a price war with the country's national carrier, Biman Bangladesh Airlines.

The company said it had frozen talks with Boeing to buy three 777-300ER and three 787-9 aircraft, saying it would "observe the situation first" before resuming negotiations.

"We've not suspended negotiations with Boeing. But everything is unstable now due to surging cost of jet fuel, which alone consumes more than 50 percent of our cost, up from around 30 percent a few months back," the spokesman said.

Bangladesh's private airline sector has been booming since state-owned Biman cut domestic and international flights in the 2007 fiscal year after incurring a record 120 million dollars in losses in fiscal 2006.

Three private airlines have started operations in Bangladesh since mid-2007, bringing the total number to four. One of them, Best Air, started international flights in May.

But soaring fuel costs have forced Best to suspend its only domestic service to the southeastern port city of Chittagong, the company said. --AFP