Malaysia denies it plans to review S'pore ties

Malaysia denies it plans to review S'pore ties

KUALA LUMPUR (Reuters): Malaysia has no plans to review ties with Singapore and wants to resolve disputes with the island republic, Deputy Foreign Minister Leo Michael Toyad was quoted as saying on Tuesday.

"The government will resolve all outstanding issues with Singapore even though it may be difficult and take time," Toyad told the Malaysian parliament, the national Bernama news agency said.

Bernama said Toyad was commenting on a statement by Singapore's deputy prime minister that although ties between the two countries were strained, they had not reached the level of going to war.

Toyad said he hoped Singapore would weigh the implications carefully before making such statements.

Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad said on Saturday it would be difficult for Malaysia to be friendly with Singapore following remarks against his country made in a recent book by Singapore Senior Minister Lee Kuan Yew.

In his recently-published memoirs, Lee accused Malaysian politicians of instigating race riots in his country which killed 23 people in 1964.

"Now our past leaders who have passed away are vilified by them (the memoirs), our people feel very angry," Mahathir said on Saturday.

Toyad also said the two countries have referred a dispute over an island which they jointly claim to the International Court of Justice in the Hague.

He said Malaysia had also explained to Singapore its intentions in imposing restrictions on the use of its airspace by the Singapore air force. Malaysia imposed the restrictions on Sept. 18.

Singapore broke away from the Malaysian Federation in 1965, and ties between the overwhelmingly Chinese island and the predominantly Malay peninsula have remained fragile.

Ties were strained this year by a row over immigration procedures for railway passengers, the air space restrictions and capital controls imposed by Kuala Lumpur which affected investors in Singapore.

In another development, the Philippines and Malaysia on Tuesday backed away from a diplomatic squabble over sacked Malaysian cabinet minister Anwar Ibrahim.

Hours after Kuala Lumpur said it was ready to restore scrapped defense talks with Manila, President Joseph Estrada said he had said enough in support of Anwar and would now keep his peace.

"I have already expressed my feelings and I think that's enough," Estrada told reporters after meeting former president Fidel Ramos who, he said, advised him to exercise restraint.

"I'm through already...I think it will stop there," he said. Estrada sparked a diplomatic row with Kuala Lumpur when he said recently that Malaysia should respect Anwar's rights and give him "due process".

He also urged Anwar not to give up the fight and said the Philippines and Indonesia planned a joint appeal to Mahathir to move Anwar to house arrest.

Estrada said Ramos told him to balance his commitment to support Anwar -- whom Estrada calls a "personal friend" -- with the interests of about 300,000 Filipinos living in Malaysia.

Earlier, Estrada played down fears the row over Anwar could harm the status of the Filipino workers in Malaysia, saying the two issues were unrelated.

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