Southeast Asia was winning the war against terror but could not yet declare victory, Malaysian Prime Minister Abdullah Badawi said, a day after his intelligence chief warned of fresh attacks.
"I think we are winning that war ... not completely but we are watching very, very carefully and we believe that soon we should see no more threat," Abdullah told the BBC in an interview broadcast on Saturday.
"I'm not looking for a date to declare victory."
Abdullah's comments, recorded during a visit to Britain this week, were aired barely 24 hours after Malaysian police said remnants of the al Qaeda-linked Jemaah Islamiah (JI) were regrouping to plan more attacks in Southeast Asia.
Believed to be the Southeast Asian arm of Osama bin Laden's al Qaeda network, JI is suspected of carrying out the Bali night-club blasts in Indonesia two years ago that killed 202 people, mostly foreign tourists.
Abdullah said that although the regional terror arm had not been completely destroyed, "I think...if there is any more, we are able to contain them".
Dozens of JI members have been arrested in the Philippines, Thailand, Singapore, Malaysia and Indonesia over the last two years, although many more are believed to be at large.
"A big group of them are preserving their strength while reorganising themselves," Mohamad Yusof Abdul Rahman, head of the Malaysian police's Special Branch, told a conference on terrorism in Kuala Lumpur on Friday.
Police and intelligence officials say JI, which seeks to establish an Islamic state across much of Southeast Asia, has also planned or carried out other attacks in the region.
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