Umno Youth has urged the government to take drastic action, including threatening to withdraw the country's envoys, to make the United States, Australia and Singapore come clean on their spying activities in Malaysia.

NONE Its chief Khairy Jamaluddin Abu Bakar said this evening the allegations made in the Snowden report were serious and denials alone by the countries concerned were not acceptable.

"Anybody can deny wrongdoings. But if there is proof of spying activity, those exposed by Snowden, such as the US, Australia or Singapore, must convince us that this is not happening, if they still want to maintain good ties with our country.

"We don't want to overreact, but we must be firm in saying we need more assurance," Khairy told reporters after the first council meeting of the new Umno Youth committee.

Media reports yesterday cited documents leaked by former US National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden which put Singapore, a key US ally, at the centre of a spy network that reportedly taps undersea cables in the region.

In a follow-up action, Malaysia’s government summoned Singapore’s high commissioner for talks yesterday but Khairy, who is also the Youth and Sports Minister, said this was not enough action.

Khairy said that the allegations were serious as it violated Malaysia’s sovereignty and reiterated several times that drastic action must be taken.

“Umno Youth does not rule out supporting strong extreme actions, for instance calling back our envoys... but in the meantime, we need more convincing. Just going to Putrajaya and denying everything, I think that is not enough,” he said.

Khairy’s views also echoed those of opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim who told reporters out of Parliament today that Malaysia had given a “meek” ( lembik ) response to the spying allegations.