Federal politician Bob Katter has been forced to respond to criticism over comments he made at a Sydney pub about not wanting Muslims in Australia.

Sydney DJ Kevin “Pon Cho” Kerr, who recorded his encounter with the Queensland MP on his mobile phone, accused Mr Katter of exhibiting “racist vibes”.

“You don’t like much, do you really?” he asked, to which Mr Katter responded: “We’re nice to you white blokes, I think we are.”

When asked if he was “in bed” with Pauline Hanson’s One Nation, Mr Katter said: “I don’t want any Muslims coming here … No, I shouldn’t say that.”

He was quick to deny the claims, despite the camera continuing to roll.

“That’s not what I said, mate. Don’t go telling lies,” Mr Katter said.

He then appears to grab the man by the shoulder before disappearing from the frame, while the taunting Mr Kerr seemed apparently smug after having caught out the politician.

The video, which was filmed at a New South Wales pub, has been viewed more than 34,000 times in 24 hours.

Mr Katter released a statement on Sunday, reiterating his stance about halting immigration from the Middle East and north Africa.

“The time is long overdue to stop people from terrorist regions coming to Australia,” he said.

“Why we say the Middle East and north Africa? The case cannot be made against Albania, Indonesia or Malaysia – they are not terrorist countries, even though they are Muslim countries.

“The exception of course are the persecuted minorities … We must, and please God will always, welcome them.”

He also made a dig at Mr Kerr for publicly releasing the video.

“There is something wrong in the media when you can address this issue formally and intelligently in the Parliament with reason and you get absolutely nothing; and some loud-mouthed budgerigar puts a video out and we get nationwide publicity,” he said.

“I’ll be writing Pon Cho a letter of thanks.

“We will say again, and again, bring in the tormented, not the tormentors.”

Mr Katter is no stranger to controversy. In 2011 he received backlash after claiming same-sex marriage deserved “to be laughed at and ridiculed”.

More recently, he released an election campaign advertisement which depicted Mr Katter smiling while holding a gun, implying the independent MP had shot two men wearing shirts labelled ALP and NLP.