Australian Prime Minister John Howard said today he would simply ignore a series of barbs about Australia from his Malaysian counterpart Mahathir Mohamad, saying the veteran leader personally had a long-standing problem with Canberra.

At a regional conference in Bali this week, Mahathir slammed Australia as "some sort of transplant from another region" and accused Canberra of wanting to be the regional "deputy sheriff" to Washington.

"I've long since given up dignifying his comments with a response," Howard said on national radio. "I'm not the only prime minister who had a run-in with Dr Mahathir.

"It's better to let it just slide away because he's now retiring. Sometimes it's more evocative, and it's more eloquently expressive of how you feel, by ignoring something, than to get into a detailed rebuttal."

Ties still strong

Howard said relations with the Malaysian people remained strong, and pointed out that 200,000 Malaysians had been through Australian universities.

The 77-year-old Mahathir retires on Oct 31, after 22 years in power, and the Bali conference was his last regional summit.

A plan to invite Howard - who is travelling this weekend for the Bali bombing anniversary - to the just-ended regional conference, was reportedly blocked by the Indonesian foreign ministry. - AFP