(AFP) Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad today criticised opposition party PAS for abusing the national religion to serve its political goals.

Mahathir said PAS has failed to meet his challenge to state in writing what it means by an Islamic state which PAS hopes to set up if it replaces the ruling Barisan Nasional.

"They must (also) write it in Chinese, Tamil so that everybody can understand about their version of an Islamic state," he told a press conference.

Mahathir's ruling Umno considers PAS the main threat to its 43 years of political dominance.

Umno lost 22 parliamentary seats in the 1999 election while PAS more than tripled the number of its seats to 27. Mahathir is Umno president.

The opposition party also retained control of Kelantan and took over Terengganu.

Not exclusive

Mahathir said as far as the government was concerned, Malaysia was already an Islamic country.

"Many Islamic countries see Malaysia as a model Islamic nation and that it was a member of the Organisation of Islamic Conference (OIC)," he said.

Mahathir said that an Islamic state was not exclusively for Muslims as other had to live in it.

"And we have to treat them fairly and justly. That is what we do in Malaysia," he added.

Mahathir said Malaysians should press PAS to explain what they mean by an Islamic state.

"Please ask PAS: What is your Islamic state? They have said that Umno is not Islamic because Malaysia has both the civil courts and the Shariah courts.

"So, please write this down that in an Islamic state envisioned by PAS, there will be no civil court but only Shariah court hence only Shariah laws will apply," Mahathir added.