"I think the best is yet to be," Lee, 81, was quoted as saying. He said Singapore had faced "a series of very severe tests, any one of which would have tripped us up and finished us off. We sailed through."

Lee said he saw no reason why Singapore -- which celebrated 40 years of independence this month -- will not stay successful if it sticks to its values.

"If you bring up your children the way that your father brought you up, with the same resolve, the same set of values, honesty, hard work, not trying to skive off people, I think there's no reason why we can't make it," he said.

Singapore, one of Asia's most modern economies, has the infrastructure and know-how to face future challenges, Lee said.

"Administrative capabilities, how we run airports, how we run container ports ... these are capabilities other countries will take decades to get their people to acquire," he said.

Lee, Singapore's first prime minister, is widely credited with transforming the former third world trading port into one of Asia's wealthiest economies.

He is now a senior adviser in the government headed by his son, Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong, which is trying to reposition Singapore as an arts hub and diversify its economy with a strong emphasis on the science sector.

SARS, the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome, struck mainly East Asia in 2003, killing 33 people in Singapore out of more than 200 infected and dealing a severe blow to the city-state's economy.

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