By IPS Correspondents
KUALA LUMPUR, May 6 2003 (IPS)

Malaysia will not recognize an Iraqi government set up and influenced by the United States as such an administration would be "illegal", Foreign Minister Syed Hamid Albar said Tuesday.

Syed Hamid said that a new Iraqi administration could not be seen as a "legally established government" if the US played any role in influencing its leadership.

"So long as the occupying powers are there, whoever (the US) put there is not representative of the Iraqi people, even though they are Iraqis (themselves)," he said.

He was commenting on whether Malaysia would continue its relations with a newly-formed interim Iraqi administration currently being set up by US forces.

"If the Iraqis cannot decide their own fate and destiny, then the time is not right for us to make a final decision.

"Until there is a real government in Iraq, we will still have some association to ensure our interests are protected …but recognition of the government will take time for us to do, and (not) until we are very clear what type of government it is," Syed Hamid told reporters at his office in the administrative capital of Putrajaya.

"If it is chosen by the Iraqi people, then that will be possible," he added.

He said Malaysia would not "cut off entirely" from Iraq and would continue sending medical aide to the ravaged country, adding that the responsibility of reconstructing Iraq should be left to "those who destroyed it in the first place".

The mainly Moslem government has strongly opposed the attack on Iraq, with Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad calling on the US and Britain to restore Iraq’s economy, saying they were responsible for destroying it.

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