Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad said Malaysia disagrees with certain countries being accused as terrorist nations and wants efforts to focus on fighting terrorists and not on invading these nations.

The premier, who told this to journalists in London, added this was Malaysias stand which he would explain to Prime Minister Tony Blair during their meeting today.

This is Malaysia's stand. I hope our actions will not arouse anger among Muslims, he was quoted as saying by national news agency Bernama .

Mahathir said Malaysias stand was clear regarding the situation in West Asia where Israeli encroachments into Palestinian territories are not regarded as acts of terror while Palestinian retaliation is denounced as violence.

"As such, if we want to accuse anybody as terrorists, we must define who are terrorists and what constitutes terrorism. Anybody committing violent actions must be branded as terrorists, regardless of whether it is a country or individual," he said.

No evidence

On the allegation that Malaysia served as a launchpad for terror activities, the premier said Malaysia did not deny some of its citizens who went to Pakistan and Afghanistan had plotted to overthrow the government but there is no evidence that they were directly involved in violence abroad.

International news magazine Newsweek had recently reported that Malaysia had been an operational launchpad for the Sept 11 terrorist attacks on the United States.

The magazine said the information was obtained from an Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) report.