KUALA LUMPUR -- Malaysia has agreed to set up an 'anti-terrorism center' in partnership with the United States, Foreign Minister Syed Hamid Albar announced after a cabinet meeting Wednesday.

It will be known as the Southeast Asia Center for Counterterrorism and will focus on "capacity-building" and understanding the issues related to terrorism, he said.

Experts from around the world will serve as instructors at the center, which will be open to all members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations when it is launched some time next year.

"The center does not involve operational matters or incorporate military activities," Syed Hamid said. "We will cooperate with the U.S. because the center is initiated by the U.S."

Malaysia first announced it might host the center after U.S. President George W. Bush raised the issue on the sidelines of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation meeting in Mexico last month.

The mainly-Muslim country has been at pains since then to dismiss any suggestions that the center would involve the deployment of U.S. troops in Malaysia, AFP repoprted.

Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad signed an anti-terrorism pact with the U.S. during a visit to the White House in May, but faces opposition from hard-line Islamists over his cooperation with Washington.

His government has detained more than 70 alleged Islamic militants over the past year, many of them members of Jemaah Islamiyah, which is suspected of involvement in the Bali bombing on October 12 which killed nearly 200 people.

Malaysia is also party to a regional anti-terrorism pact with Indonesia, the Philippines, Cambodia and Thailand.