(AFP) The government has said it will ask Washington to clarify a New York Times report that terrorists in Malaysia are likely targets of future covert and overt US action.

Deputy Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi said it would be inappropriate for the United States to act unilaterally if it had information about terrorist activities in Malaysia, the official Bernama news agency reported.

Abdullah said the United States should channel whatever information it had to the Malaysian government so that it could work together with the United States and take appropriate action.

He said Malaysia had been cooperative with the United States in its fight against terrorism.

"We cooperated and gave them information on two persons whom they connected to the World Trade Centre incident," he said, stressing that Malaysia does not protect terrorists.

'Lack of authenticity'

Abdullah, who is also home minister, said: "We still don't know about the authenticity of the statements, whether the US officials really made the statements."

He was commenting on a New York Times report on Wednesday, quoting US officials, that terrorists linked to Osama bin Laden's al-Qaeda network in the Philippines, Indonesia and Malaysia are among likely targets of future action.

"We should not jump to conclusions over the media report because the statement did not come from Secretary of State or Secretary of Defence," Abdullah said, adding that the government would ask for more information from Washington.

The government has condemned the September 11 terror attacks on the US but has criticised the retaliatory bombing of Afghanistan.