He said even if the reasons for their existence no longer exist it does not mean that they should be done away with.

"When naughty children are no longer unruly, the cane should not be thrown away. Just hang it on a nail on the wall," he said by way of an analogy.

He said in the interest of national security the government has to always be on its guard and that while the old challenges may have disappeared new ones are appearing on the horizon.

Abdullah, who is also the Internal Security Ministry Minister, was delivering a keynote address at the 2007 Mass Media Conference organised by the Internal Security Ministry in Sri Kembangan.

The two-day conference is being attended by about 300 people including local and foreign media owners and practitioners.

The prime minister, who had just returned from a trip to Russia, Bosnia and Italy yesterday, cautioned the mass media against taking advantage of his tolerant approach on certain matters.

He said there was a limit to his tolerance and because there has been problems the government was monitoring the mainstream media's news reports, commentaries and analysis articles.

Some newspapers and periodicals have been testing the limits of his tolerance by using one critical report after another, he said.

"There have been some articles, commentaries, human interest stories written giving an impression that it was the general opinion and views of everyone, when it was actually an individual's independent view on the matter," he said.

He added many failed to realise that the people who read the stories might have different views, while some, including those with access to the Internet, believed and were influenced by what they read.

Abdullah said media owners, including group editors, should be more responsible, and not play up stories or issues just to get a page one story out, but take into consideration the harmony among the races in the country.

"That is why the government tries to react as soon as possible to defuse any situation, because some people say 'control it before it happens'. This can help [to prevent] the fire from spreading and avoid negative perception, but yet we have been quite tolerant," he added.

Despite all this, Abdullah noted that the "Malaysian media have been very responsible or we would have been torn apart a long time ago".

"We would like to see national unity, the Rukun Negara and the Federal Constitution maintained and respected by everyone and the media play an important role in the development of a country," he added.

Abdullah also said he believed the government and the media should complement each other, as was practised before independence and after, including the cooperation given to all previous leaders.