Goh, in an interview with the Straits Times published Jan 26, said Singapore will continue to take a quiet and rational approach to such criticisms, but warned this was not a sign of weakness.

"Our replies are soft but we are not weak. If they think we are weak well that's bad. No, it's soft but inside (slapping his chest) but there is a lot of firmness," he said when questioned about Singapore's difficult relations with neighbours Indonesia and Malaysia.

Because of its affluence, Singapore has been looked on by its Southeast Asian neighbours -- several of them wracked by political turmoil and mired in economic problems -- as a source of financial help.

But, Goh said the small size of Singapore's economy has constrained the government from responding generously to all expectations.

Singapore finances are not derived from natural resources such as oil, he said.

"They are from taxes of the people. So we've got to help in a way that is meaningful," he said, pointing to Singapore's role as a "catalyst" for foreign investments for its neighbours.

Indonesian President Abdurrahman Wahid in November accused Singapore of being only interested in profit, while other members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) have criticised it for forging a slew of bilateral free trade pacts outside the region.

"They are right up to a point," Goh said. "We are profit-oriented, we are calculating, we are logical, we are rational but that doesn't mean we are selfish."

Singapore puts investments where they will work, "but if it is just a matter of giving grants and financial aid which may not work we will not do it."

He rejected suggestions that Singapore has an image problem, saying the problem was with neighboring countries.

"There is an image problem with them. They think because of the way we handle things we are not what they want us to be."

Recalling a comment by former Indonesian President B.J. Habibie belittling Singapore as a "little red dot," Goh said Singapore cannot be bullied.

"If we are subservient, obsequious, jump the moment others say jump and sit down when they command us to sit down then we will not have an image problem.

"But I say 'No, why should I?' We are a sovereign country, we are your equal. And let's talk on the basis of sovereign equality'," Goh said.

"If we've got an image problem this way, we're quite happy to live with this image because that's the only way for Singapore to survive."

Singapore must also "leapfrog the region" and establish free trade ties with other countries if the economic growth of its neighbours remained sluggish because of political problems, he said.

In the medium-term, these trade ties would help investors outside the region to look at the potentials of ASEAN as a whole, he said.

Singapore's fellow ASEAN members are Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Thailand and Vietnam.