The world is failing to win the war on terrorism and anti-Islamic bias by some countries could lead to a clash of civilizations, Malaysia warned today as it launched a regional anti-terrorism centre.

Despite military action and tightened security, acts of terrorism had increased since the Sept 11, 2001, attacks in the United States, Foreign Minister Syed Hamid Albar told foreign diplomats.

At the same time "there is a widespread perception that terrorism is equated with Islam," he said at the formal opening of the Southeast Asian Regional Centre for Counter-Terrorism.

"Malaysia is concerned that the actions taken by some countries such as profiling by religion or ethnicity heightens the possibility of a world polarized along religious and ethnic lines."

These actions "would only lead to unfolding a clash of civilizations, providing avenues for extremist elements to propagate further unrest and violence," Syed Hamid said.

The world must tackle "the environment that breeds terrorism - such as foreign occupation, injustices, exclusion, poverty and economic disparity" while "winning the hearts and minds of the terrorists and their sympathisers," he said.

The anti-terrorism training centre was initially proposed by US President George W Bush in a meeting with then-prime minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad, but Malaysia rejected a proposal that Washington help fund it.

The move was attributed to political sensitivities in this mainly-Muslim country which strongly opposed the US-led invasion of Iraq.

Training programmes

The government has made it clear, however, that it welcomes US collaboration and input for the centre, which is designed to bolster the defences of the 10 member states of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations.

The centre has already held several training programmes, with the focus on capacity-building, skills development and exchange of information to fight terrorism in the region, where the main threat comes from the Al-Qaeda-linked Jemaah Islamiah (JI) network.

JI was responsible for the 2002 Bali bombings in Indonesia which killed 202 people, 88 of them Australians.

Australian experts ran a programme at the centre this week on the increasingly sophisticated methods of passport forgery used by hi-tech terrorists.