The Associated Press today remained tight-lipped on whether it would apologise to Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad for a report filed on Monday which was said to be erroneous.

The Prime Minister's Department has demanded an apology from the AP's Kuala Lumpur office over the report which it said was taken out of context by the international news service.

"We have no comment," said AP 's news editor Rohan Sullivan when contacted. He also declined to say if the agency was willing to apologise.

The PM's Department said that the Oct 8 article has taken out of context a speech made in Parliament by Mahathir in response to a question on terrorism.

According to the AP report, Mahathir criticised the attacks on Afghanistan by the United States and Britain.

"Mahathir repeated calls for a summit of world leaders to reach an internationally acceptable definition of terrorism, and he criticised Israel. 'If they wanted to take action, they should pick the right people'," according to the AP report.

"I would support them if they wanted to take terrorist action against Israel, because Israel had shot dead many Palestinians. For us, those are the terrorists."

However, the PM's office said that the report was "incorrect and mischievous" because Mahathir was not referring to the US and British strikes against Afghanistan in his statement.

"AP had chosen to take out of context and referred the statement to the US and the British attacks on Afghanistan when this was clearly not the case," said a statement from the PM's Department.

''They' are not US and Britain'

The Hansard's official translation of Mahathir's statement, which was originally made in Malay, recorded that prime minister as saying:

"Those who had committed the terrorism against the Palestinians were Israelis. Retaliate against Israel then. Those who were killed in the attacks on the WTC building included many foreigners who had nothing to do with the terrorist acts committed by the Israeli authorities.

"Therefore, if they wanted to take action, they should pick on those who had acted against them, and I would support them if they had committed these terrorist acts against Israel because Israel had killed many Palestinians."

The PM's Department contended that the "they" which was referred to by Mahathir were not the US and Britain.

"At no time did the prime minister urge world leaders or US and Britain to attack Israel as was clearly implied in AP 's article," it said.

The PM's Department today sent an official letter to the news agency demanding an apology.

Meanwhile, Information Ministry parliamentary secretary Zainuddin Maidin, who oversees a government's committee in monitoring the foreign press, could not be contacted for comment.