Malaysia will not allow New York police to place anti-terrorism agents in the country, Deputy Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi said in remarks published today.

Abdullah was commenting on a June 29 New York Post report quoting Police Commissioner Ray Kelly as saying the New York police department would send agents to Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia and the Phillippines as part of a vast terror-intelligence network.

"Malaysia will stand by its policy not to allow this, because our own police force are capable of handling the security situation here," Abdullah was quoted as saying by the Malay-language Berita Harian newspaper.

"There are no terrorist activities here," he added.

Kelly was quoted as saying that the New York Police Department already had officers based in Israel, France, Canada, Afghanistan and Pakistan to "supplement" federal government intelligence gathering on terrorist activities.

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New York began to develop its own intelligence sources in response to controversies over the likelihood of a repeat of the Sept 11 2001 attacks which destroyed the World Trade Center Towers, where about 3,000 people were killed, the Post reported.

"I am not aware of the New York police department's intentions," Abdullah said. "If anybody wants to come here to monitor the situation or collect information, they have to inform us. They cannot come as they like."

Malaysia, which has a majority Muslim population, this week set up a regional anti-terrorism centre originally proposed by US President George W Bush, but dropped the US as a fully-fledged partner in the scheme after being at pains to stress that no American forces would be involved.

Bush last year personally thanked Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad for his cooperation in the so-called war on terrorism, but ties have been strained recently by Mahathir's strong criticism of the US-led war on Iraq.

Malaysia has detained more than 70 Islamic militants in the past two years, many of them allegedly members of the al-Qaeda-linkied Jemaah Islamiah terrorist group accused of the Bali bombing last October. - AFP