Malaysia's frosty relations with Australia turned a touch colder after a tongue-lashing by Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad, who said his counterpart in Canberra should learn "some humility."
Known for his gentle sarcasm and an acerbic tongue, Mahathir said he was not to blame for the bad blood between him and successive Australian prime ministers.
"It's not because of me. There is a fondness among ... prime ministers of Australia to make nasty comments. Like calling me recalcitrant etcetera," Mahathir, who steps down later this month after 22 years in power, told his last international news conference.
He was referring to the word used by then Australian Prime Minister Paul Keating in 1993.
At a separate news conference, Prime Minister John Howard refused to comment on Mahathir's political career, except to say his relation with the Asian leader was "one of strict cordiality."
Australia reacted sharply to Mahathir's recent comments at the Organisation of the Islamic Conference summit in which he said Jews ruled the world by proxy, joining the United States and other Western nations in describing them as anti-Semitic.
On the defence at a news conference, Mahathir took a dig at Australia's history of mistreatment of Aborigines, contrasting their plight to Malaysia's indigenous people - such as tribes on the island of Borneo.
"We have a very good history of treating our Aborigines for example. We didn't shoot them we didn't commit genocide. So when making criticism of other people please look at your own background and temper it with some humility," Mahathir said.
"That will be good for good relations. Otherwise I have no problem with Australians."
Since the "recalcitrant" comment by Keating, Malaysia has done everything to prevent Australia from being accepted as a more active trade partner by the Association of Southeast Asian Nations.
The 10-member group sees Australia as a geographically dislocated European nation.
The perception deepened in 2000 after Howard called Australia the United States' deputy sheriff.
After criticism at home and in Asia, Howard tried to jettison the description, but last month US President George W Bush said Australia was nothing less than a full "sheriff" in the war against terror.
"Australia can make more attempts to identify itself with Asia," Mahathir said.
"But Australia keeps on playing this idea of being deputy sheriff. That is not appreciated by Asian countries. We cannot have a partner who is also a policeman looking at us," Mahathir said.