The Australian government said it will continue to take actions deemed necessary for the security of its people even if the actions prove unpopular with foreign leaders, notably Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad.

Australian Foreign Minister Alexander Downer said during a radio interview in Australia that he will not respond to criticisms levelled against the country by Mahathir yesterday on recent raids on two Muslim homes one in Sydney and the other in Perth.

"We've certainly heard some negative sentiment from time to time from Dr Mahathir. I'm not really going to respond to that except to say (that) the raids were conducted as a result of Jemaah Islamiah (JI) being listed as a terrorist organisation in the United Nations," said Downer. The transcript of Downer's interview was released by the Australian High Commission here today.

Speaking to reporters at the end of the Asean summit in Phnom Penh, Mahathir had described Australia as a particularly unsafe destination for Muslims because of the actions taken against several Indonesian Muslim households.

Australian authorities have said the raids were carried out based on suspicion that the Indonesians were connected to the JI, an organisation that has been blamed for the Oct 12 Bali bombing which killed almost 200 people, most of them Australians.

Travel ban

Explaining further, Downer said Australia had acted appropriately in investigating any persons associate with the JI, particularly after the organisation is included in a UN list of terrorist-related groups.

In addition, he compared the raids of Muslim homes to action taken by Malaysian security forces in arresting suspected JI members under the Internal Security Act which allows indefinite detention without trial.

"I acknowledge the fact that the Malaysian government has taken tough action against JI members and in many cases arrested and detained members of JI under the Internal Security Act.

"So all Australia is doing here is making sure that out 19.5 million people are as safe as they can possibly be," he said.

Last week, the United Nations formally added JI to its list of organisations subject to worldwide sanctions because of alleged links with al-Qaeda.

The ruling binds all member countries of the UN to freeze any assets belonging to blacklisted groups, so as to prevent possible al-Qaeda operatives from travelling and obtaining weapons.

Citizens come first

Meanwhile, in response to another criticism by Mahathir against travel warnings issued by the Australian government against Southeast Asian countries, Downer reiterated that the security of its people will have to come before the feelings of its neighbouring countries.

"We can't be going around saying we're going to overlook information we have about possible terrorist attacks in the interests of making sure that nobody throughout Southeast Asia is upset about our travel warnings," he said.

Mahathir was quoted in news reports yesterday as censuring both Australia and the United States for singling out Southeast Asia in their travel advisories after the Bali carnage. He said the two countries were as vulnerable to terrorist attacks as any Southeast Asian nation.

Contacted later, US Embassy Press Officer Frank Whitaker declined to comment on the prime minister's remarks.