KUALA LUMPUR - Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak said the country was confronted with four main challenges, namely global warming, global financial crisis, Malaysia's economic dependence and commodity price hike.

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Speaking at a forum on the Malaysian democracy in Kuala Lumpur on Thursday, Najib, also Malaysian Finance Minister, said he was not more fortunate than his predecessors as he had to deal with the changes of the political and economic landscape within and outside the country.

On global warming, Najib humorously said that rising sea levels did not cause Malaysia to sink, but the altered weather pattern had resulted in heavy rainfalls in Johore, the southmost state of Peninsula Malaysia.

Najib said in the worst hit district of Segamat in the Johore State alone, the Malaysian government would need to allocate 100 million ringgit ($33 million) to rebuild the damaged infrastructure, while offering aid in other forms to the flood victims.

Touching on global financial crisis, Najib said that economy in the United States and some European countries have not fully recovered, affecting also Malaysia, an export-oriented country.

The prime minister said that the Malaysian economy was dependent on other economies, and it relied on external trade to grow.

If the external environment was improving, so will the Malaysian economy, added Najib.

When touching on price hike, Najib refuted claims that the Malaysian government was fully responsible for the phenomenon as this has been a global trend.

Local media have recently reported that the Malaysian government may start piling up rice to ensure adequate supply should the price of the commodity escalate significantly.