Dubai: Malaysian President Mahathir Mohammed has said he will not mediate between India and Pakistan as such a move would not be welcome and asserted the two countries could solve their problems through "compromise and not confrontation".

When asked if there will be any move on his part to persuade New Delhi and Islamabad to resolve longstanding issues, Mahathir who flew into Pakistan after a two-day visit to India said, "I do not think I would make any attempt. I do not think I would be welcome."

"We have good relations with both India and Pakistan. We have got our own way of solving our problems, and that is not by confrontation but through compromise," he said in an exclusive interview with the 'Gulf News' at Dubai.

He said one of his major achievements was to bring the disparate ethnic groups in Malaysia together. "Now I think the non-Malays do not have a problem. All I wanted to do was balance development between the Malays and non-Malays."

One-tenth of Malaysia's multiethnic 22 million population is Indian and one-third Chinese, just below 50 per cent accounting for native Malays, which has in the previous years led to racial tension.

"The tendency earlier was to be very racial in our outlook. But we accept that we have got to live among ourselves. There was once a racial riot. We were able to put a stop to that kind of thing and learn the lessons from the incident," Mahathir said.

He also dismissed any fears about Islam in the West, saying the fundamental essence of Islam was peace.

PTI