Prime Minister Kevin Rudd having a cup of coffee with Malaysian officials will not cause people smugglers to quake in their boots, the Opposition says.
Mr Rudd visited Kuala Lumpur last night, at the start of a six-day overseas trip, where he discussed people smuggling during his first face-to-face meeting with Malaysian counterpart Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak.
During their meeting, the leaders are believed to have agreed to greater cooperation on the sharing of people-smuggling intelligence.
The leaders committed to a meeting between their defence chiefs to discuss ways to further combat people smuggling, which Mr Rudd described as an ''evil trade''.
Mr Najib said after the meeting that he had assured Mr Rudd that Malaysia would do all it could to prevent the flow of illegal immigrants to Australia.
''Certainly we do not want Malaysia to be known as the transit point for human trafficking,'' he said.
Mr Rudd thanked the Malaysian government for its ''energetic'' efforts to combat the human trafficking of people smugglers.
''This is an evil trade, people smuggling,'' he said. ''It is bad for the individuals concerned, it is bad for the countries concerned.
''I know for a fact that a number of groups have been prevented from travelling further through the active intervention of the Malaysian authorities.''
The pair also canvassed education, climate change and Mr Rudd's proposal for an Asia Pacific Community during their meeting.
Liberal frontbencher Scott Morrison said both sides of politics believed open dialogue was an important part of the solution to people smuggling.
''But Kevin Rudd having a cup of coffee with people in Malaysia is not going to be having the people smugglers sitting up there in southeast Asia quaking in their boots,'' MrMorrison said.
The Government wanted to blame everything on some sort of global crisis, he said. ''The one thing I think the people smugglers need to get as a message is that you won't get through.''
A record number of boats carrying asylum seekers have arrived in Australia in recent months and Malaysian officials have warned thousands of asylum seekers from other countries are waiting to sail here from Malaysia.
After the quick stop in Malaysia, Mr Rudd will arrive in Berlin today for talks with Chancellor Angela Merkel, who is pushing for new rules to strengthen the international finance system.
He will travel to Zurich tomorrow to lobby FIFA President Sepp Blatter on Australia's bids for soccer's World Cups in 2018 or 2022. In Rome on the same day, he'll meet Pope Benedict XVI to discuss the impact of the global recession, religious freedom and the potential canonisation of the founder of the Josephite order, the Blessed Mary MacKillop.
Australian Catholics have been campaigning for her to be canonised as Australia's first saint after she was beatified the first step to canonisation by Pope John Paul II in January 1995.
In Italy, Mr Rudd will also meet Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, who's still reeling from another round of sex scandals.
Mr Rudd's planned meeting with world leaders in Italy later in the week is a very important step to locking in a global deal on emissions cuts.
Mr Rudd will meet world leaders attending the 17-nation Major Economies Forum, including US President Barack Obama, to be held in the earthquake-hit town of L'Aquila in Italy.
Mr Rudd will be accompanied by Climate Change Minister Penny Wong for talks on strategies aimed at bedding down a world agreement to reduce carbon emissions.
''It's a very important step along the way,'' Senator Wong's ministerial assistant, Greg Combet, said.
''The main timeframe, of course, for trying to come up with a deal post-Kyoto is the Copenhagen conference in December.'' AAP