Firmly on the saddle seven months after taking office, Malaysian Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi says he wants to impose wide ranging reforms and instil in his people a high-performance culture so that Malaysia remains a competitive Asian tiger economy.

Speaking to investors on Monday in the United States, the first stop of a three-nation trip that includes France and Britain, Abdullah cited fiscal prudence, lower business cost, less red tape, good governance, transparency and accountability as among his key goals.

"I am personally spearheading administrative reforms in the government that will cut red tape and make the civil service more responsive and efficient," said the 64-year-old Abdullah, who is marketing Malaysia as a model Muslim economy that can act as a bulwark against radicalism and terrorism.

Since he took over the helm from predecessor Dr Mahathir Mohamad in November, Abdullah has led the Barisan Nasional coalition, anchored by his Umno, to a landslide victory in national elections.

Just as he landed in Washington on Sunday, he received news of his confirmation as president of the powerful Umno after receiving an overwhelming number of nominations from party members.

New confidence

As Abdullah walks out of the imposing shadow of Mahathir, who had been in power for more than two decades, he is introducing political and economic reforms that he says would inject new confidence into the country.

"The underlying thrust of my economic reforms is increasing capacity and competitiveness," he told business leaders at a meeting with the US-Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) Business Council.

"Malaysia cannot afford to rest on our reputation as one of the Asian tigers of yesteryear. The emergence of China and India has forced us to make changes in order to stay competitive," he said.

Abdullah is optimistic that the Malaysian economy, which grew at a rapid 7.6 percent in the first quarter, could sustain the momentum through 2004.

An Islamic scholar, Abdullah has also moved to cut big ticket projects, a key feature of the Mahathir era.

"First and foremost, I felt strongly that we needed fiscal prudence," he said. "After running a budget deficit for six consecutive years, I felt we needed to commit ourselves to a balanced budget in the medium term."

He is making it a point to call for greater private investment to fuel the economy and introducing new talent to helm the management of strategic government-linked corporations to promote high performance culture.

Worried that Malaysia is losing its competitiveness to some of its neighbouring Southeast Asian nations, he has set about reducing costs of doing business and streamlined procedures of the powerful policy-making foreign investment committee to make the country investment friendly.

New growth sources

He has also moved to diversify the economy, whose mainstays are the manufacturing and services sectors.

Abdullah has identified agro-based industries together with advances in biotechnology as new sources of growth.

This, he believes, can turn Malaysia's abundant natural resources into a vibrant and lucrative sector of the economy and provide sources of new income to the rural population, Umno's key support base.

One of the first moves Abdullah, who also holds the post of home minister, made after taking office is combating graft without fear or favour.

"I have singled out corruption as a serious problem in our economy, we are taking this fight to the root," Abdullah said, citing "systemic reform" of the police force as a key example.

During Mahathir's reign, the country's police chief was found guilty of assaulting then deputy premier Anwar Ibrahim, who was jailed under the draconian Internal Security Act (ISA), which allows for indefinite detention without trial.

Abdullah has no immediate plans to review the ISA, under which human rights activists say the government has held nearly 100 people - most of them Islamic militants - without charge or trial over the past three years.

"Governments around the world are learning that their failure to protect human rights can actually undercut efforts to combat terrorism," warned Sam Zarifi, deputy director of US-based Human Rights Watch's Asia division.