JERUSALEM • Israel's Defence Minister said yesterday that a Palestinian scientist shot dead in Malaysia was a rocket expert and "no saint", but dismissed suggestions by Hamas that Israel's Mossad spy agency assassinated him.

Two men on a motorcycle fired 10 shots at Dr Fadi Mohammad al-Batsh, an engineering lecturer, in Kuala Lumpur on Saturday, killing him on the spot, said the city's police chief Mazlan Lazim.

Dr Batsh was walking from his apartment to dawn prayers at a local mosque at the suburb of Gombak when he was shot. An autopsy on his body was being carried out yesterday.

Hamas, an Islamist militant group that rules the Gaza Strip, said one of its members had been assassinated in Malaysia. Its leader Ismail Haniyeh said Mossad had been behind past attempts to kill Palestinian scientists, and the attack on Dr Batsh "follows this sequence".

Israeli Defence Minister Avigdor Lieberman said it was likely that Dr Batsh was killed as part of an internal Palestinian dispute. "The terrorist organisations blame every assassination on Israel - we're used to that," Mr Lieberman told Israel Radio.

"The man was no saint and he didn't deal with improving infrastructure in Gaza - he was involved in improving rockets' accuracy... We constantly see a settling of accounts between various factions in the terrorist organisations and I suppose that is what happened in this case."

Malaysian police chief Mohamad Fuzi Harun said yesterday that a task force has been formed to investigate the killing but would not speculate on the motive or whether foreign assassins were involved.

Photos of the two suspects provided by witnesses showed they looked like Europeans but police could not confirm they were in fact from Europe, he told a news conference. "We want to ensure a complete probe. We are still investigating the motive," Tan Sri Fuzi said.

No arrests have been made so far and the murder weapon has not been recovered, he said, as he appealed for witnesses to come forward.

Palestinian representative to Malaysia Anwar al-Asha said Dr Batsh's body will be taken back to the Palestinian territories for burial after it is handed back to the family.

Malaysian Deputy Prime Minister and Home Minister Ahmad Zahid Hamidi was quoted by the state-run Bernama news agency yesterday as saying that Dr Batsh was "an electrical engineer and an expert at making rockets".

Militants in Hamas-ruled Gaza fire rockets at southern Israel, but usually without casualties. In recent weeks, tensions have run high at the Gaza-Israel border as Palestinians ramped up protests demanding the right to return to homes that are now in Israel.

REUTERS, AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE