There is no danger of Malaysia becoming an extremist Islamic state, Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi said in comments published today.

He was responding to a question posed by former Singapore prime minister Lee Kuan Yew during a recent visit to Malaysia, the official Bernama news agency reported.

"I have said many times that we reject any form of extremism. Certainly, we reject and condemn terrorism. We are a very moderate Islamic country," Abdullah said.

In multiracial, multireligious Malaysia "we respect the non-Muslims. We share the government, we have power-sharing which doesn't happen in other places," he said.

Abdullah was speaking Sunday after outlining his policy of Islam Hadhari, translated as "civilizational" or progressive Islam, which he described as "a very practical approach to motivate Muslims to do well and be better".

Since taking over from former premier Dr Mahathir Mohamad some 18 months ago, Abdullah has presented a vision of Islamic governance with the message that Islam is a religion for development.

Islam a complete religion

Muslims should care as much about their welfare in this world as they do about the afterlife, he has said, and therefore should press forward with policies which have made Malaysia one of the most developed Muslim states in the world.

"There are other Muslim countries whose leaders and people believe in the same things we do, who pray five times per day, fast and perform the haj," Abdullah said Sunday.

"But why are they not developed? Why is it that their countries are strife-torn and filled with poverty and hardship?"

Abdullah rejected charges by hardline Islamists that Islam Hadhari amounted to a new religion, saying it was an approach based on the faith's original tenets.

"Islam is a complete religion, but what is also important is the approach and what I am trying to do is take the practical one," he said.