(AFP) Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad today defended Malaysian police accused of human rights abuses, saying Italian police were more "brutal" at the G8 summit in Genoa last month.

Mahathir was reacting to a report by the Human Rights Commission of Malaysia which found police guilty of using excessive force against anti-government protesters and "cruel and inhuman" treatment of detainees.

Mahathir said that in Genoa the Italian police not only fired shots at anti-globalisation protesters but even drove a vehicle over a dead demonstrator.

"Their police are brutal while our police are more considerate," Mahathir was quoted as saying by Bernama news agency on his return from an international conference in Uganda.

He said the commissioners, whose report covered police action against some 5,000 opposition demonstrators in Kuala Lumpur on Nov 5 last year, were not thinking of Malaysia's national interests.

"At times the police have to resort to force because the demonstrators too use force," he said.

Mahathir, a regular critic of the west, said the rights group should not be influenced by western thinking and should have given weight to police evidence.

Personal outrage

Lim Kit Siang, chairman of the opposition Democratic Action Party said in response to Mahathir's remarks that if the goverment was unable to rebutt the report it should ensure there would be no recurrence of police violations of human rights.

Referring scornfully to Mahathir's complaint that the commission was not thinking of Malaysia's national interests, Lim said: "At the rate of the swelling of the anti-national ranks in the country, it would not be long before those who do not belong to them would be looked askance by Malaysians as lacking in personal courage to protect democracy."

The government-backed commission released its report on Monday after its first public inquiry since being formed in April last year.