VIENTIANE, Nov 26: Malaysia said on Friday that Thailand should not try to stop its ASEAN partners from discussing the Muslim unrest gripping its southern provinces as the region needed to be informed of potential security threats.

Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra said on Thursday he would walk out of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) summit in Laos next week if leaders raised the deaths of 87 Muslim protesters in the insurgency-hit south.

The ASEAN's policy of not interfering in the affairs of its 10 members "should not let it happen", he said. But the foreign minister of neighbouring Muslim-majority Malaysia, Syed Hamid Albar, said there was "no such thing as absolute non-interference".

And while ASEAN members have no intention of interfering in Thailand's domestic affairs, they have a right to inquire about the situation because the threat could spill over to other countries, he said here. "We don't want any of the ASEAN countries to become a breeding ground for a new form of terrorism," Syed Hamid told reporters.

"We know the Thais are able to handle it in a way that will bring peace and security in that province. But if anybody should ask that question, it should not be simply put aside as interference. "The multilateral process is not for interference but for us to be well-guarded and to work together." -AFP