Mahathir criticises U.S. on terrorism

Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad said yesterday that the United States should look into the root causes of terrorism instead of putting so much emphasis on security and defence.

Addressing a news conference at the end of his visit to this southern Indian city, Mahathir said Washington had not made any real anti-terrorism gains since the September 11 attacks last year.

"There is too much stress on security and defence and not enough attention is being paid to the causes of terrorism," said Mahathir, when asked about security in Southeast Asia in the wake of the deadly bomb blast on Saturday on Indonesia's Bali island.

He did not say what he thought the causes were. "You cannot fight terrorism that way because we do not know where they are going to strike," he said. "In a conventional war you can attack the country and defeat the country and the war is over."

Mahathir, who strongly opposes U.S. military action against Iraq, warned that moves to oust Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein would only build greater animosity among Muslims against the United States and Europe.

Any attack on Iraq "is not going to contribute toward the fight against terrorism," he said.

Mahathir, who arrived on Wednesday to visit some information technology projects, was to visit New Delhi later yesterday to hold talks with Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee and address a business forum.

Today, Mahathir heads to Pakistan for talks with President General Pervez Musharraf and to launch a power station belonging to Malaysia's energy utility, Tenaga Nasional, the Malaysian Foreign Ministry said.

Impressed by India's performance in the IT software sector, Mahathir said also his government was willing to cooperate with India in software technology. "Indians are good in the software sector, while we are good at hardware."

The Malaysian prime minister arrived in Hyderabad with a 25-member delegation and visited HITEC city, the new IT processing centre and the International Institute of Information Technology. He was also impressed by Hyderabad's clean roads.

"In Malaysia we get heavy rains at frequent intervals. And they take the job of keeping the roads clean seriously. But in India roads are generally dusty. It is, however, not the case with Hyderabad because of the special interest shown by Chandrababu Naidu," he said.

Equally keen to impress the Malaysian team, Chief Minister Nara Chandrababu Naidu said at the HITEC city the state government would provide internet facilities at select 'kirana stores' – Hyderabad's ubiquitous neighbourhood groceries – to take information technology to the common man.

He gave Mahathir and the delegation a 30-minute computerised presentation "AP – A Quest for Excellence".