KUALA LUMPUR, October 21 (IslamOnline.net) - Malaysia will buy more Pakistan-made Anza anti-aircraft missiles and has concluded more deals on acquiring defense-related equipments from Islamabad despite U.S. threats to ban such weapons in the South East Asian region, Islamonline.net was told on Tuesday, October 21.

"Malaysia will buy more Anza surface to air anti-aircraft missiles, which is capable of bringing down war planes at very short range. The U.S. wants to prevent that and is urging a ban on such weapons in Asia," a Pakistani arms dealer told IOL.

Pakistan downed two of India's military planes, a MIG-21 and a MIG-27, with Anza MKI missiles for violating its airspace on 26 May, 1999.

On Monday, October 20, Malaysian Defense Minister Najib Tun Razak told Bernama news agency his country will go ahead with its plans to acquire the Man-Portable Air Defense System (Manpads) missiles to meet the country's defense requirements.

He added that this will be done despite U.S. threats to ban such weaponry in the region, without extrapolating on which missiles the U.S. wanted ban.

IOL has learnt that the missiles intended for ban by the U.S., which tried to push for such a ban during the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) meeting in Bangkok this week, were the Pakistan-made Anza Manpad.

Washington feels the Manpads, which can be easily handled by one person, can pose a threat to the safety of military and civil aircraft.

Malaysia has given guarantees to the APEC ministerial meeting, currently in session in Bangkok, that it will tighten security to prevent such missiles from falling into the hands of terrorists.

"We'll impose tight security to ensure the Manpads does not fall into the hands of our enemies," Najib said.

Malaysia considers buying defense assets based on its needs, he said, adding that there is no reason for Malaysia to stop or cancel the purchase of defense apparatus like the Manpad, which it already has in its arsenal.

Pakistan has already delivered a number of such ANZA missiles to the Muslim country and plans to deliver more in the near future, IOL was told by the arms dealer.

Malaysia managed to influence the 15th APEC meeting not to include in its statement any action plan to tackle the Manpads' issue.

Instead, the ministers would urge APEC leaders to issue a strong statement on the importance of controlling the use of Manpads.

The Anza missiles give Pakistan a response to India's superiority in modern aircraft.

India has a numerical superiority in modern fighter aircraft of more than 3 to 1 over Pakistan.

The Anza MK-1, Anza MK-2, and Anza MK-3 missiles have ranges of 4, 6 and 15 km, respectively.

The missiles are manufactured by the laboratory named after Dr. Abdul Qadeer Khan, the father of Pakistan's nuclear program.

They were first manufactured in 1990 and handed over to the Pakistani military the same year.

Other Islamic and Mideast countries also possess such missiles which are reverse engineered and modified versions of two Soviet SA-7 and SA-2 missiles.

They are designed to counter air-ground attack by all types of aircraft flying at low and very low altitudes due to its simplicity of operation, accuracy, light weight, mobility and versatility.