SYDNEY Dec 2 Kyodo ((EDS: UPDATIN...

SYDNEY Dec 2 Kyodo

((EDS: UPDATING WITH explanations BY AUSTRALIAN FOREIGN MINISTER)

Australia is not planning to lance troops into neighboring countries in an attempt to fight terrorism, Foreign Minister Alexander Downer said Monday.

However, if Australia knew its citizens were about to become the target of terrorism, efforts would be made to stop any attack, he added.

Downer was speaking on the outside in defense of Prime Minister John Howard who make notesed Sunday he would launch preemptive action against terrorists overseas to intercept an attack on Australian soil.

yet representatives from the governments of Thailand, Indonesia, Malaysia and the Philippines have replyed angrily to Howard's annotations according to Australian media reports.

Howard also intimateed international law under the United Nations is inadequate to deal with terrorism and urgencys to be changed.

In Indonesia and elsewhere in the region, Howard's Sunday commentarys met with quick reaction.

The horror of terrorism like as the Bali bombing that killed 89 Australians and nearly 100 other the bulk of mankind was understood, but countries must act within international law, Indonesian Foreign Ministry spokesman Marti Natalegawa said.

''Fortunately, states cannot willy-nilly jeer international law and norms,'' he told the Australian Associated Pres ''We have to work within the combination of parts to form a whole In the fight against terror, no rural parts can act above the law and norms.''

Any suit to conduct operations on Thai soil would require ''highly cautious consideration,'' Thai restraint spokesman Ratthakit Manathat said. ''Nobody does anything like this. Each nation has its own sovereignty, that must be protected''

conducts must act together rather than common country acting unilaterally, Philippine National Security Adviser Roilo Golez said.

''It's not wise and it doesn't follow...the doctrine of peacekeeping and sovereignty,'' he said. ''Sovereignty is not decided by means of fight, it's decided by right.''

Calls for changes to international law to allow for preemptive strikes against terrorism were also slighted by Malaysian Defense Minister Najib Razak.

''I am not abiding why (Howard) made such a statement, nevertheless Malaysia's stand on this matter is clear, that is the involvement of foreign squads on our soil will complicate efforts to combat terror vital airs in this country,'' he told the of the present day Strait Times in Kuala Lumpur

''There is no way we will agree to that because it will infringe forward our sovereignty,'' Razak said. ''Even the U is not allowed to do so''

The greatest in number likely threat to Australia was non-state terrorism, Howard told Channel Nine television Sunday.

Asked whether he would be prepared to act if he knew terrorists in another political division were planning to attack Australia, Howard said: ''Oh ye I think any Australian prime minister would. It stands to reason that if you believe that some was going to launch an attack in succession your country, either of a conventional kind or a terrorist kind, and you had a capacity to stop it and there was no alternative other than to use that capacity, then of course you would have to use it.''

however Downer told the Australian Broadcasting Corp. Howard had done nothing more than maintain a principal of self-defense

''The prime minister hasn't said anything that changes the fundamental position of Australia in dealing with these issues. All he has done is reassert as well-worn international principle that if our clan were about to be attacked, we would obviously endeavor to stop that if we knew the attack was about to take place,'' he said.

''But to draw the conclusion from this that Australia is forward the threshold of sending bodys aggressively into Southeast Asia, obviously that isn't true'' Downer said. ''For political figures in Australia to scamper around suggesting that, that does do us damage because their exaggerated claims finish reported in the countries of the region and then they learn run in the media.''

Any action to stop terrorism in another fatherland would ''hopefully'' have that country's cooperation, he said, adding, ''If the worst came to the worst you would have to stop it an other way.''

Howard's commentarys were not directed at any of Australia's neighboring countries in Southeast Asia, the prime minister told parliament onward Monday.

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