The 'war on terrorism' worldwide will be made difficult if Israel's recent bombardment on Palestine received no response from countries supporting anti-terrorism, Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad said today.

Reiterating Malaysia's stand in condemning Israel's attack on the country, Mahathir said it was clearly an act of terrorism and should be stopped immediately.

He said Israel was not only sending bombs all over Palestine but also attacked the president, Yasir Arafat, with the intention of killing him.

"I think it is not fair to force Arafat to prevent his people from killing [Israelis when all] they wanted [is] to protect their families from Israel's aggression. When Israel murdered their children, friends and relatives, they are of course angry and retaliate," he told a press conference in Parliament.

Mahathir said as a result of this situation, Israel openly launched a war on Palestine, classified Arafat as a terrorist and planned to kill him.

"I think the attack (on Palestine) might be sponsored by some superpower countries," he said, adding that he predicted that there will be no serious action taken by the United Nations to stop the war in Palestine.

"Even if we force the UN to take serious action on Israel, its Security Council may not implement it because they [have] the veto power," Mahathir said.

Second Afghanistan

To another question, Mahathir said there is a tendency for Malaysia to become the second Afghanistan in the near future due to the increased number of illegal militant groups.

"Many people are not happy with us and they are willing to do anything, including using the Afghanistan-style militant system to take over Malaysia.

"We have detained many of them. Unfortunately, there are many more nationwide," he said adding that the government will upgrade its military system from time to time to curb militant groups.

To another question, Mahathir said the government would not keep former leader of the Moro National Liberation Front Nur Misuari for too long to avoid suspicion that Malaysia is supporting terrorism.

"We will send him back as soon as possible and the Philippines must accept him. We will keep negotiating with the Philippines government even though our counterpart is reported to have said that it would not take Misuari back," he said.

Misuari, who was also governor of the Autonomous Region for Muslim Mindanao, has not demanded anything from the Malaysian government so far, according to Mahathir.

The police have questioned Misuari on several issues including roots of the rebels in southern Philippines and whether he was involved in the Pulau Sipadan kidnappings by the Abu Sayyaf in April last year.