(AFP) Malaysia and Indonesia called for an end to US bombings of Afghanistan at a Southeast Asian summit today but other leaders did not back their line, Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad said.

Mahathir said Malaysia and regional giant Indonesia, the world's biggest Muslim country, felt that the air strikes should stop "but others did not express strong views on that" during their talks here in Brunei's capital.

"We defer on this and we prefer not to insist on that because there were some differences in our views," said the 75-year-old elder statesman of the region.

Singapore and the Philippines have backed the US-led military strikes in Afghanistan.

The premier made the disclosure when asked about the concluding remarks by summit host Brunei's Sultan Hassanal Bolkiah, who stopped short of calling for an end to the bombing.

Mahathir said he brought up the issue of terrorism three times with the leaders.

"We emphasised the need to identify and define the terrorists and what terrorism is," he told reporters at the end of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) summit.

Civilian casualties

Mahathir said he tried to impressed on fellow leaders the inefficiency of attacking Afghanistan with air strikes.

"It will result in a lot of civilian casualties. It will anger a lot of Muslims in the world. We cannot destroy the terrorists through carpet bombing," he said.

Malaysia has condemned the attacks on New York and Washington but also criticised the retaliation in Afghanistan, saying it will kill innocent people without stamping out terrorism.

The Taliban is accused by the US of harbouring Osama bin Laden, the main suspect in the Sept 11 attacks on New York's World Trade Center and the Pentagon in Washington.

Mahathir warned that there would be growing opposition to the US action from both Muslim and non-Muslim nations.

"A lot of people all over the world are very unhappy over the civilian casualties. So far there is no evidence that the Taliban forces have been killed," he said.

The Asean summit was the first meeting of all the Southeast Asian leaders since the September terror attacks in the United States.

Asean comprises Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Burma, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam.