CONTROVERSIAL character Borat is not racist his creator has insisted - but is a "tool" for exposing racism.

Sacha Baron Cohen has finally stepped out of character in the US to defend his creation, the fictional Kazakh journalist.

In his first interview about the film not conducted in the Borat persona, he said the joke was not on Kazakhstan - which has talked of suing him - but on those who believed such a backward place could exist.

In the movie, Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan, the spoof reporter rampantly makes sexist, racist and anti-Semitic comments.

Cohen said: "By himself being anti-Semitic, he lets people lower their guard and expose their own prejudice."