Malaysia and many other countries are still vulnerable to terrorist attacks and will have to adopt concerted methods to address the problem, said Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi.

"The terrorists who are our common scourge remain at large and continue to threaten our security. For many it even appears that the terrorists are winning and not losing," he told about 100 participants at the four-day Pacific roundtable conference in Kuala Lumpur today.

"They retain the initiative; and all of us, my country included, remain vulnerable to terrorist attacks."

Abdullah, who is also Internal Security minister, said the reactions of governments following Sept 11, 2001 attacks in the US have aggravated the situation.

"More alarmingly some of our post-Sept 11 actions are alienating or radicalising people (even more), and breeding a new generation of terrorists in the Arab and Muslim world. We are not only refusing to recognise some of the root causes, we are also consciously and deliberately aggravating them," he said.

The US government since then has ventured militarily into Afghanistan and Iraq in an attempt to stem international terrorism.

Malaysia is considered by many, including the US administration, of being at the forefront in the war against terrorism in the region. Since September 2001, it has intensified arrests of alleged terrorist with the use of Internal Security Act, which allows for detention without trial.

Until last year, 90 alleged Kumpulan Mujahideen Malaysia and Jemaah Islamiah militants had been detained, although some have subsequently been released.

Convenient focus

Abdullah also criticised the occupational forces in both Afghanistan and the Iraq for their use of torture and brutality.

"In Iraq, Afghanistan and other places the Geneva Conventions has been brutalised, the sadistic torture and humiliation of prisoners has outraged the whole world, and not just the Arabs or Muslims. Let there be no doubt - such inhuman action will not be easily forgotten or lightly forgiven," he said.

He also noted that the US military occupation of Iraq has come at a great cost not only to the US administration but also to the people of Iraq.

"Invaded illegally and without just cause, its presence is volatile and its future uncertain. The liberators are increasingly seen as the enemy, and there is no security; in many areas, the people are worse off even than when Iraq was slapped with sanctions," he said.

He further said that governments have failed to address the root causes of terrorism, choosing only to focus on what is convenient.

"In some respects we are all in denial, many Muslims refuse to acknowledge that there can be bad Muslims, and that Islamic teachings have been corrupted by some groups to serve their militant cause.

"Indeed the very word Islam means 'peace' yet some terrorist groups have preached that heaven awaits those who kill innocent civilians, so long as it is in the defence of their cause...nothing can make a virtue out of the massacre of innocent men, women and children."

He said anti-American sentiments and international terrorism cannot be resolved until the problems of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict are dealt with in accordance with international law and United Nations resolutions.

"A just and stable world order cannot be built on such manifest and wanton violation of human and political rights," he added.