Asian governments cannot defeat terrorism through military means but needs political courage to address the root causes of the scourge, Malaysia said yesterday.

Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad said the government was on the alert and would increase surveillance after Tuesday's deadly car bomb blast outside the JW Marriott Hotel in Jakarta which killed at least 10 people.

But he warned terrorism would continue to haunt the region and the world unless the root causes were removed.

"For how long can we continue to take precautions? If we relax one day, it will occur again. As long as the root causes of terrorism are not addressed, then we will continue to face these problems," he told reporters.

Asked if the US is to be blamed for the way it handles the Palestinian crisis which he has cited

as a key factor driving terrorism, he said he was not blaming them but "we think the US approach will not reduce the threat of terrorists."

Mahathir also hit back at critics over Malaysia's move to detain without trial some 70 suspected Islamic militants under a tough security law over the past two years.

"Everyone said Malaysia was cruel to arrest and detain people but now they know which is better, whether to allow bombs to explode first and then arrest people, or to arrest people before the bombs explode."

Separately, his deputy Abdullah Ahmad Badawi said the Jakarta explosion showed terrorism was not a problem which could be wiped out easily.

"We can make life very difficult for terrorist elements. We can scatter them, we can cut off one head here and one tentacle there, but often the beast survives," he was quoted as saying by Bernama news agency when opening a three-

day Asia-Pacific security conference here.

"It melts into the alleyways, the hills, the forests... but it mutates, then strikes again.

"This time it was Jakarta. Tomorrow or a month after or a year, it could be another place. No city, no island, no country is safe."

Abdullah, who will succeed Mahathir who retires end-October, said governments were not putting enough emphasis on intelligencegathering about terrorist activities.

Malaysia has strengthened measures individually and in cooperation with other countries to deny terrorist funds, food and arms "but again, some of us need to do even more," he said.

The Southeast Asia Regional Centre for Counter Terrorism, launched in Kuala Lumpur last month, could be the "focal point" for intensifying training and enforcement, he added.