Though "horrified and shocked" by the terrorist attacks in the United States, the Malaysian government is glad that the US did not identify terrorism with any particular ethnicity or religion, said Foreign Minister Syed Hamid Albar today.

The minister said the government condemned all forms of terrorist attacks including those on the World Trade Center in New York and the Pentagon in Washington DC - symbols of US superpower status in the global economy and military respectively.

"Any violent act is not the right way to solve problems," said Hamid at a press conference in Wisma Putra.

Hamid stressed that terrorism is practised by individuals and therefore should not be identified with certain "ethnicity or religion".

"The US government should fight terrorism, not Muslims. Most Muslims are peace-loving people," added the minister.

Most reassuring

Hamid said President George W Bush's statement yesterday that the US target is terrorism and not Muslims was "most reassuring".

US officials identified Saudi-born fugitive Osama bin Laden - who is said to be responsible for many previous terrorist attacks against American targets - as the prime suspect.

However, several bin Laden-linked Palestinian groups have denied responsibility for the attacks.

Bin Laden himself claimed that he was not involved in the deadly strikes but expressed happiness over what he called "a punishment from Allah".

Reuters today reported that at least six people were detained by New York police in relation to the attacks.

The news agency also reported on Wednesday that five Arab men were identified as suspects and police seized a rented car containing flight training manuals in Arabic at an international airport.

Cautious actions

On the likely US retaliation on terrorist groups, Hamid said:"I think it is the view of all world governments that we want to punish those responsible."

However, he stressed that proper and cautious actions should be taken to ensure that civilians are not affected.

Hamid added that it was premature to say if the Malaysian government would provide shelter for Afghan refugees should the US government attack the Taliban-ruled country, known to be the safe haven for bin Laden.

Shortly after the attacks on US, explosions and missile strikes were reported in Afghanistan's capital Kabul but US officials denied any knowledge about the blasts.

Yesterday, Nato and China pledged military support to cooperate with the US to punish those responsible for the attacks.

Grave lesson

According to Hamid, the government will not send support crew to assist US in its rescue operation as it is a country with vast resources. Instead, the country would focus on ensuring the safety of foreigners here, he added.

Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad has conveyed condolences to the US government and will be signing the condolence book at the US embassy here today.

The foreign minister stressed that violence and terrorism should not be tolerated, and the Malaysian government has always taken preventive measures to stop bad things from happening.

"We do not wait for such incidents to happen and we exercise powers provided for under the law for purposes of preventive actions.

"The incidents in the US have provided us a lesson that the consequences can be grave and devastating with innocent people injured and lives lost," he said.

Early last month, 10 people, mostly PAS members, were arrested under the controversial Internal Security Act, which allows detention without trial.

They were allegedly involved in the Malaysian Mujahidin Group, a Muslim militia said to be responsible for the bombing of a church and a temple, bank robbery, and assassination of a political figure.