The United States will not back off 'an inch' in speaking out against human rights violations committed in Malaysia or elsewhere, said its Attorney-General Alberto Gonzales today.

He said the US believes that human rights violations, whether committed in its own backyard or other countries, have to be investigated and accounted for.

"We will not back off an inch in terms of speaking out in favor of human rights," Gonzales ( photo: right ) told reporters at a joint-press conference with his Malaysian counterpart Abdul Gani Patail in a hotel in Kuala Lumpur.

He was responding to a report claiming that the US State Department was 'diluting' its previously critical stand on human rights abuses in Malaysia because of violations committed in Guantanamo, Cuba.

"It is extremely important for this administration as we know it's important for the American people to the extent that (if) there is a violation of human rights by Americans, either in America or anywhere around the world, we investigate those allegations and people are held to account.

"That is what America stands for. We understand what our legal obligations are and we believe in the rule of law ... We are fully committed to ensuring that basic human rights are respected all around the world," he said.

Human Rights Watch in its report quoted a US State Department official as saying that Washington had by end 2003 ceased putting pressure on Malaysia's use of its Internal Security Act (ISA).

"With what we're doing in Guantanamo, we're on thin ice to push on this," the report quoted the unnamed official.

Both Washington and London have made preventive detention as one of their means in cracking down on Muslim militants.

Geneva convention

Gonzales, on a tour of Australia, Indonesia, Malaysia and China to discuss international cooperation in law enforcement against terrorism, among other offences, also spoke of the US' commitment to the 1949 Geneva Convention.

"The US remains firmly committed to the Geneva Convention," he said.

"We understand that they represent binding legal obligations upon the US. Not only are they legal obligations binding upon the US, they represent the level of support of basic human dignity which is constant with the values of Americans.

"For that reason, the United States, of course, remains fully committed to the Geneva Conventions and to the principles of the Geneva Conventions," he added.

Gonzales has been criticised for reportedly advocating, during his tenure as White House counsel to US president George W Bush, for the US to withhold Geneva Convention protections of detainees captured during its war in Afghanistan.

He has also been criticised for allegedly urging the US to 'opt out' of the Geneva Convention to reduce the likelihood of its own army personnel and intelligence officials being prosecuted under federal laws on war crimes.