SYDNEY, February 15, 2006 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) - An Australian lawmaker Wednesday, February 15, apologized to the Muslim minority over remarks she made suggesting that Australia's high abortion rate could see it become an Islamic nation.

"I deeply regret any offence that might have been taken by members of the Australian Muslim community," Agence France-Presse (AFP) quoted government backbencher Danna Vale as telling parliament.

"I do hope that this clarifies in some way what I was trying to say in a very clumsy way in a live interview the other day."

Vale told reporters on Monday, February 13, that Australians were aborting themselves "almost out of existence" and suggested that the country could become a Muslim nation within 50 years' as a result.

The remarks angered senior politicians and the Muslim minority, who labelled the remarks "racist" and divisive while Vale's fellow parliamentarians described them as offensive and urged Prime Minister John Howard to reprimand her.

Howard said he and his government disagreed with Vale but would not be disciplining her over the "extravagant comments".

"Clearly, that is not a view that is my view and it's not the view of the government," Howard said.

Vale, whose electorate includes part of the areas of southern Sydney where race riots between white and Lebanese residents broke out earlier this year, denied being a racist.

She said she recognized that Australian Muslims, like those of other faiths, saw the right-to-life as a core value.

Muslims, estimated at 300,000, make up just 1.5 percent of Australia's 20 million people.

Muslims have been the subject of racially-motivated measures adopted after the 9/11 attacks on the United States.

Most of the community blamed incumbent Howard for fostering an image of the community as the enemy within through his hard-line policies.

Thousands of Australians in Sydney and Newcastle rallied in December against "hidden" racism in the country. 

The marchers protested a week of violence against Arabs and Muslims after e-mail and mobile phone messages urged local residents to beat-up “Lebs and wogs” -- racial slurs for people of Lebanese and Middle Eastern origin.

They moved after Lebanese youths had beaten a beach guard for reportedly snatching the hijab of a Muslim beachgoer.

Pundits have further blamed Howard's draconian anti-terror law for the country's racial violence. The law was adopted after the July 7 terrorist attacks on London's underground system.