PM threatens to cut anti-terror ties with Australia
Malaysia warned today that its cooperation with Australia in the war on terrorism was at risk after Prime Minister John Howard threatened pre-emptive strikes on neighbouring countries.
"We are cooperating as much as we can today in the fight against terrorism. But if they are going to blame us, we will have to rethink about cooperating with them," Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad told reporters.
The two countries signed an anti-terrorism agreement in August which provides for increased sharing of intelligence.
The pact was inked in Kuala Lumpur by Australian Foreign Minister Alexander Downer and his Malaysian counterpart, Syed Hamid Albar, who said it was testimony to a common desire cooperate in eliminating international terrorism.
Malaysia has detained more than 70 alleged Islamic militants since mid-2001, many of them members of the Jemaah Islamiah group suspected of involvement in last month's Bali bomb attack in which almost half of the more than 190 victims were Australian.
The two countries are also members of a multilateral pact called the Five Power Defence Arrangement (FPDA), along with Singapore, Britain and New Zealand.
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