PRIME Minister Tony Abbott has waded into the Scottish independence debate, telling a British newspaper that a breakaway Scotland would not help the world.

Scotland goes to the polls on September 18 to decide whether to break away from the 307-year-old union with England.

"What the Scots do is a matter for the Scots and not for a moment do I presume to tell Scottish voters which way they should vote," Mr Abbott said.

"As a friend of Britain, as an observer from afar, it's hard to see how the world would be helped by an independent Scotland.

"I think that the people who would like to see the break-up of the United Kingdom are not the friends of justice, the friends of freedom, and the countries that would cheer at the prospect... are not the countries whose company one would like to keep."

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