Deputy premier Najib Razak today downplayed racially charged speeches attacking the country's ethnic Chinese and Indian communities during Umno's recent annual meeting.

Ministers from the party have scrambled to hose down public outrage over the comments, which were shown live on cable television during the party's general assembly.

"(The debates) should not go overboard, we will manage it in a way that we have always managed previous assemblies," Najib told reporters.

"What is important is that it does not spill over into Umno's policies as well as Umno's sense of fairness," he said.

"Even previous assemblies have been quite feisty but people don't realise it because there have not been live telecasts."

Armed with fiery rhetoric, several delegates to Umno's annual gathering last week asserted the economic and religious rights of the nation's majority Muslim Malays over those of its minorities - mostly Chinese and Indians.

Some delegates said that the Malays must be willing to fight "to the last drop of blood" to defend their rights.

Another speaker warned minorities to stop questioning the rights of the Malays and not to test their patience.

Cabinet decision

Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi in his closing speech tried to placate minority communities, saying Umno cared for all races. The cabinet on Wednesday also said it would advise Umno not to televise its proceedings.

But parliamentary opposition leader Lim Kit Siang today said debates over televising the assembly had detracted from what he said were racist comments from the ruling party.

"Abdullah owes Malaysians an explanation why he had not openly chided in his winding-up speech the Umno delegates," Lim said.

"The insensitive, racist, incendiary and seditious speeches of the Umno general assemblies have also plunged the credibility and legitimacy of Umno discipline and integrity into question," he added.

Cabinet minister Nazri Aziz, whose portfolio includes law, has reportedly warned that police action will be taken against the speakers.

"Those who made speeches which were seditious will face the music," Nazri was quoted as saying in the New Straits Times Friday.

Race relations have become increasingly strained recently amid a campaign for religious freedom and a series of controversial court cases that touch on Islam.