Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad today condemned the US-British air raids on Iraq, saying they would stifle global cooperation against terrorism, an official report said. Mahathir, who has won praise from Washington for his cooperation in the war on terror, expressed sadness over the move and said it would divert the global focus away from the fight against terrorism.

The veteran leader said he would voice his disagreement over Thursday's attack to members of the Organisation of the Islamic Conference (OIC), adding that Malaysia would not in any way be involved in the raids.

"This will give rise more to anger among certain groups and the cooperation to fight the terrorists will probably be stifled," he was quoted by the Bernama news agency as saying.

Only promote greater hatred

The United States confirmed Friday that a dozen US and British warplanes bombed a "critical command and control node" in western Iraq in a larger-than-usual raid.

Mahathir has in the past condemned US military action against Iraq as "undemocratic", saying it would only provoke greater hatred and dent the Islamic world's efforts to show the "moderate face of Islam".

"When you focus on Iraq, the people who suffer are the helpless peopole of Iraq and of course, you are going to arouse a lot of ill-feelings," he said.

Washington, which fears that Iraqi President Saddam Hussein is accumulating weapons of mass destruction, had earlier declared that an attack on Iraq would be the next step in its unilaterally declared "war on terror". AFP