SYDNEY - Labor opposition foreign affairs spokesman Kevin Rudd told Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohammed today to take a "running jump" over his remark that Australia had to decide if it was Asian or not.

Mahathir told The Weekend Australian newspaper in an interview published on Saturday that Australia had gone too far in identifying with US aims and tactics in the war against terrorism.

"Australia has to decide whether it's an Asian country or a Western country," he said, adding that Australia would always be regarded as an outsider in its own region.

Rudd, a former diplomat renowned for his careful but occasionally colourful use of language, said the Mahathir was simply wrong and Australia would not "sit back and cop it sweet".

He said the climate of terrorism and the recent Bali bomb blasts had changed the way the government advised its citizens.

"I think frankly it's time the prime minister of Malaysia took a running jump," Rudd told commercial television here.

Diplomatic silence

"The bottom line is we have had nearly 100 Australians murdered in Bali in a terrorist attack.

"Now that has radically affected the way in which we are going about advising Australians about the safety of travelling in the region."

Rudd said although better relations may enhance security between the nations, Mahathir had got it wrong.

"That doesn't mean you've just got to sit back and cop it sweet when the Prime Minister of Malaysia says something which I think is just plain wrong and his statement as reported over the weekend is just plain wrong."

Federal Tourism Minister Joe Hockey said as a member of the government, he had to be more diplomatic, but added: "I understand where Kevin's coming from."

Foreign Minister Alexander Downer made no comment on the issue, maintaining a diplomatic silence in the knowledge that Mahathir is notoriously easily offended, especially by Australian politicians.

Relations between Australia and Malaysia have been strained on numerous occasions because of his reaction to comments or decisions of Australia's political leaders or media.

They went close to breaking point when then Prime Minister Paul Keating described him as "recalcitrant" over his refusal to attend an Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in the United States a decade ago. AFP