KUALA LUMPUR Sept 7 - Malaysia today called for a global consensus to regulate offensive contents in the Internet and to protect the public from their adverse effects.

Energy, Communications and Multimedia Minister Datuk Leo Moggie said no single country in the world could come up with its own effort to tackle the problem which could damage the culture of many countries especially developing ones like Malaysia.

However, he cautioned that it was still a long way to go and as such, the issue should be raised as often as possible in international fora.

''It is difficult unless a common understanding among countries worldwide is reached on the need to restrain unwanted contents in the Internet,'' he told reporters after opening the 30th Annual Conference of the International Institute of Communications at a leading hotel here.

Moggie said the government had a duty to protect the public from adverse contents in the Internet especially the exposure of minors to pornography.

In the context of the Multimedia Super Corridor (MSC) where the government had guaranteed free flow of information, he said there will be no censorship on information posted on the Internet and it would be accessible to everyone.

''But the focus must be at the point of content creation and not at the point of access. There must be some responsibility when people put things through the Internet,'' he said

He also said Internet sales in Malaysia were projected to grow from US$46 million this year to US$1 billion by the year 2003.

In his speech, Moggie called on developing countries to work together to establish a common news network to promote fair and accurate news reporting.

He said many of these countries do not have their own news agencies and relied on the services of major news groups, thus exposing them to negative reporting.

''It is perhaps naive of us to expect these news agencies to be more responsible in their reporting and be more aware of the problems facing developing economies,'' he said.

Moggie said many investment decisions were made on the basis of news and reports published by major news organisations and as such, commercialisation together with an open market environment had resulted in news being exploited mainly for economic benefits and financial considerations.

''To counter this monopoly on information communication technologies and narrow the disparity between the information-rich and information-poor countries, there is a need for us to adopt technologies that are able to provide equal access and empowerment for our countries and people,'' he said.

About 200 people from 20 countries are attending the three-day conference themed 'The Knowledge Society - Commerce, Culture and Communities in Development'.