KUALA LUMPUR - A WOMAN was arrested at Malaysia's main airport after her luggage was found to contain 10 towels soaked with liquid cocaine, reports said on Saturday.

The woman, a foreigner whose nationality was not released, transported the towels from Brazil and was intending to take them to Thailand but the closure of Bangkok's airport forced her to re-route to Kuala Lumpur.

She was detained on Thursday after behaving suspiciously at the airport, the Star newspaper quoted police as saying.

'A policeman asked her to open her bags and found seven large wet towels in one and three wet towels in the other,' said Selangor state narcotics chief Nordin Kadir.

He said that the woman denied any knowledge of the drugs, worth 2.5 million ringgit (S$1.04 million) and said that friends had asked her to take them to Thailand.

Mr Nordin reportedly said it was the second time drug traffickers had been caught at Kuala Lumpur International Airport trying to smuggle drugs in wet towels, after a 2005 attempt to move methamphetamines in the same way.