The cruelties of the United States has led the superpower to fear its own shadow, said Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad today.

The premier, a staunch critic of the US, was commenting o­n the travel advisory issued by the US State Department cautioning its citizens against travelling to Malaysia.

He said the country especially Sabah was actually enjoying peace and security with the situation under control.

"On my arrival here, I see peace and security, there are no riots. But today we read in the newspapers that in Malaysia, especially in Sabah, there are terrorists planning to explode bombs to kill their (US) citizens," he was quoted as saying by Bernama.

Mahathir said the measures taken by the US are like those employed by "tyrants in fear, like (deposed Iraqi president) Saddam Hussein who are afraid of their own people."

Terror haven

The premier, who is in Sabah o­n a two-day working visit, also rapped reports which claimed the state was a terrorist haven.

"We're all able to gather like this at the PBRS congress without fear of any threats. But according to the CNN, the US states that Sabah is a terrorist haven. As such, (Washington) advises its citizens not to come here.

"This is because they (US) felt guilty as they have committed all sorts of actions like killing and oppressing others, and as such, they're afraid of their own shadow, afraid to come here, afraid because they know there are many people in this world hating them," he said.

Mahathir said Malaysians do not hate the Americans but they were still afraid because of their guilt in invading another country, of oppression, and supporting Israel and was hurling accusations that these countries were planning to kill them and even Malaysians had intentions to kill its citizens.

The premier gave an assurance that the Americans were safe here.

"We have security forces adequate enough to maintain peace and security in the country," he said.

"We in Malaysia do not resort to cruelty against our people. We have developed the country and the people are free to move about and this is the style of the Barisan Nasional government which is elected by the people and serves the people," he said.

No fear

Mahathir said leaders of the country were also not afraid of the people and were free to go anywhere with their safety assured.

"I myself go to shopping complexes and meet the people without feeling afraid because we do not oppress our people. This is the BN, we're leaders merely because we wish to serve the people," he said.

US embassy spokesperson Frank Whitaker told malaysiakini earlier the travel warning dated May 14 was issued in replacement of a similar alert from November last year and was not indicative that specific intelligence had been received o­n planned attacks in Malaysia.

"The old travel warning was due to be renewed. A couple of wire services wrote about the (alert) as though it had something to do with the Riyadh bombings but it was just coincidental. There has been no substantive change (in risk levels)," he said.

The US government had issued warnings of possible terrorist attacks in Malaysia and parts of east Africa in the wake of the suicide bombings in Saudi Arabia which killed 34 persons.

Whitaker said the specific reference to Sabah was made largely as a cautionary reminder to potential American tourists of an incident in Sipadan three years ago when a group of tourists were kidnapped for ransom by southern Filipino militants, the Abu Sayyaf group.