Malaysia said the weapons inspectors' report to the UN Security Council showed there was no justification for war against Iraq, and suggested that an invasion could lead to increased Islamic terrorism.

"The new UN team has not come up with any certainty that Iraq has weapons of mass destruction," Foreign Minister Syed Hamid Albar told a news conference yesterday.

"How could o­ne justify (saying) that Iraq has failed to cooperate with the UN team? We cannot support any decision now to say war should be declared o­n Iraq."

Syed Hamid was reacting to the report by UN chief weapons inspector Hans Blix, who criticised Baghdad for not having come to a genuine acceptance of disarmament but said inspectors had found no banned weapons since they began work Nov 27.

Anger

The foreign minister warned: "If there is war, there will be a lot of anger against the Americans, against the British and against the Australians.

"Where will this lead us to? Our war against international terrorism is not over."

Malaysia has supported the US-led war o­n terrorism, but Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad has repeatedly warned that an attack o­n Iraq would provoke more Islamic terror attacks against Western targets. - AFP