Iraq could become new centre of destructive elements: Putin

NEW YORK, Oct 6: Warning that Iraq could become a "new centre" of all "destructive elements", Russian President Vladimir Putin has asked the US to quickly restore soverignty to Iraqis and secure a new UN resolution clearly defining how long international forces would remain there. The invasion of Iraq had "created a terrorist haven" which did not exist previously and the country could "become a new centre, a new magnet of all destructive elements,"

Putin said in an interview to ‘The New York Times’ published today. He said a "great number of members of terrorist organisations" have been drawn into the country since the fall of Saddam Hussein and now "the coalition forces received two enemies at once - both the remains of the Saddam regime, who fight with them, and those who Saddam himself had fought in the past - the fundamentalists."

The Russian President, The Times said, did not identify the militants entering Iraq, but he said they came "from all the Muslim world."

Putin, who held talks with his US counterpart George W Bush in Camp David last week, said differences clearly remain on the Iraq issue and ruled out sending Russian troops to the war-ravaged country as of now.

He said the US should move to quickly restore soverignty to Iraqis and to secure a new United Nations resolution clearly defining how long international forces would remain there.

Unless that is done, the US could face the possibility of a prolonged violent and ultimately futile war like the one that mired the Soviet Union in Afghanistan, Putin said. (PTI)

Security council denounces Israeli attacks on Syria

UNITED NATION, Oct 6: Meeting in response to the latest developments in west Asia, speakers in the Security Council have denounced Israel’s attacks on Syrian territory, which were widely viewed as a grave escalation of violence in an already volatile region.

A number of participants at the meeting also deplored Friday’s suicide bombing in Haifa but cautioned they could not excuse the subsequent attack on Syria, which they said constituted a violation of international law.

Syria was lauded for not responding militarily, while it was generally agreed that all concerned must pursue a just and comprehensive peace as outlined by the diplomatic quartet comprising the United Nations, the United States, Russia and the European Union.

The meeting held yesterday, which heard from about two dozen participants, was convened at the request of Syrian Ambassador to the UN Fayssal Mekdad, who had asked the council to discuss the violations of Syrian and Lebanese airspace committed by the Israeli air force, and the missile attack it carried out against Ain Al Sahib, a civilian site within Syria.

Mr Mekdad sent letters to the Secretary-General and the Council President from Syrian Foreign Minister Farouk Al-Sharaa, who offered details on the incident, which he called "a flagrant violation of the principles of international law" marking "a new and dangerous escalation."

Addressing the council, Mr Mekdad expanded the remarks, calling Israel’s aggression a violation of the UN charter, international law and the 1974 disengagement agreement between the two countries.

He said the Israeli Act of aggression was part of a strategic policy aimed at escalating tension in west Asia just when the international community was pursuing efforts towards peace in the region. Echoing a warning put forward in the Foreign Minister’s letter, Mr Mekdad said Syria was "not incapable of establishing a balance of resistance and deterrence that would force Israel to revise its calculations."

He hoped that the council would adopt a resolution responding to the current situation.

Israeli representative Dan Gillerman was invited to speak at the council, though his country is not a current member of the powerful 15-member body.

He referred to the attack that took place in Haifa on Friday as the latest of about 40 terrorist bombings committed by Islamic Jihad in the past few years.

He charged Syria with encouraging, harbouring, training, funding and supporting a variety of notorious organisations, including Islamic Jihad.

Syria, he alleged, had itself directed acts of terrorism, with coordination and briefings by phone and the internet, and by summoning activists to damascus for briefings.

He also alleged that Iran supported terrorist organisations.

Syria used its state-run news media and official institutions to glorify and encourage suicide bombings against civilians, he said.

The Syrian delegate, he added, spoke a great deal about resistance but did not explain precisely how the murder of children in a restaurant was an act of resistance.

Also yesterday, Secretary-General Kofi Annan strongly deplored the Israeli air strike, warning that it could inflame violence in the troubled region.

A spokesman for Mr Annan said he was "especially concerned that this further escalation of an already tense and difficult situation has the potential to broaden the scope of current conflicts in west Asia, further threatening regional peace and security."

The Secretary-General urged all concerned to respect the rules of international law and to exercise restraint, according to the Spokesman. (UNI)

Pak, India agree to increase staff at missions

ISLAMABAD, Oct 6: Pakistan has agreed to India’s proposal to increase the staff strength of the Indian and Pakistan missions at New Delhi and Islamabad from the present 47 to 55 members, while India has given its consent to Pakistan’s request for its experts to inspect Baglihar Hydro Electric Plant in Kashmir.

Confirming media reports here, Indian High Commissioner to Islamabad Shishankar Menon told PTI that Pakistan has formally conveyed its consent to increase the staff strength at both the High Commissions to 55 as suggested by New Delhi few weeks ago. India has proposed to increase the strength in view of the growing demand for Indian visas specially after the resumption of the bus services between the two countries.

The increasing rush, which amounted to over 200 visa applications a day stretched the sparely staffed Indian High Commission. Problems also arose as the visa section here has virtually been winded up after Pakistan expelled almost all staff from this section early this year during the tit for tat expulsions.

Pakistan foreign office spokesman Masood Khan said Islamabad had agreed to the Indian suggestion with a hope that New Delhi would finally agree to restore the full strength of 110 members as existed till December 2000. India had cut down its staff strength by half following the attack on the Indian Parliament in the same year. The strength dwindled to 47.

Menon also said that India in principle has agreed to Pakistan’s request to send its experts to see the Baglihar Hydro Electric Project in Jammu and Kashmir. Pakistan has been asking for examination by experts and alleged that the hydro power project being built over Chenab river at Baglihar in the state may have been violating the 1960 Indus water accord which granted Riparian rights of three rivers flowing from Kashmir into Pakistan.

"We have agreed in principle to permit the Pakistan team to see the project and work out the dates with mutual consultations." (PTI)

Al-Qaeda call to arms seen to help Musharraf: US analysts

WASHINGTON, Oct 6: Far from endangering Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf, the recent Al-Qaeda call for overthrow of his Government would ironically bolster the general’s international position, analysts have said.

A taped message, purportedly from deputy Al-Qaeda leader Ayman Al-Zawahiri, was broadcast by two Arab-language news agencies on September 29, calling for the overthrow of the Pakistani Government.

Analysts at Strategic Forecasting (Stratfor) said in a recent report that there appeared to be a shift in Al Qaeda’s strategy with respect to Pakistan, where it is believed to be currently headquartered.

"Al-Qaeda only recently has focused its sights on Musharraf, even though Islamabad joined the US war against militant Islamism more than two years ago."

Since the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, Pakistan has apprehended 500 suspected Al-Qaeda operatives and handed them over to US custody.

They included ranking Al-Qaeda members like Abu Zubaydah, Ramzi Bin Al-Shibh and Khaled Sheikh Muhammad.

"This could indicate that Al-Qaeda is buckling under the stress of the global crackdown, and that even its supporters in Pakistan’s military intelligence organization, the ISI, have abandoned it."

Until the release of this latest tape, Stratfor said, it appeared Al-Qaeda was comfortable in Pakistan despite joint US-Pakistani efforts to disrupt the network.

This comfort level, it said, could be attributed to a number of factors, such as Islamabad’s inability to exercise control over the tribal belt along the Afghan-Pakistani border.

Exigencies associated with the bureaucratic nature of the military establishment and Musharraf’s hesitance to crack down on Al-Qaeda supporters in the Pakistani military for fear of a backlash within its ranks.

However, it appears that Islamabad has overcome these obstacles, Stratfor said. During his meeting with US President George W Bush at Camp David, Musharraf told reporters that for the first time since the creation of Pakistan, the military is operating in the tribal Pashtun Badlands, it pointed out.

Mushrraf may also might finally have got a handle on the complex and slow-moving Pakistani bureaucratic machinery, it added.

With the current reshuffle, Musharraf might have brought to the fore those who share his commitment to flush out Al-Qaeda from the country.

"In any case, Al-Qaeda likely sensed trouble on the horizon, prompting the release of this tape.

"With massive organisational shifts under way, the network might see its allies in the Pakistani military being marginalized or co-opted, and possibly is trying send a message to Musharraf that if he cracks down any harder on Al-Qaeda, he could be risking a coup or even his life," Stratfor said.

The Taliban, and by extension Al-Qaeda, does have a certain degree of support among a cross-section of Pakistani society and the military.

At least one plot to assassinate Musharraf was uncovered after September 11, it pointed out.

"But with the Government’s established track record of halting these plots before they hatch, it is highly unlikely that anything will come of Al-Zawahiri’s call to arms."

Al-Qaeda might be unable to convince the Pakistani masses, but the network still is trying to assume leadership of the global Islamist trend.

"By addressing a number of issues of concern for Muslims both in Pakistan and elsewhere, Al-Qaeda is trying to draw support from Muslims across the globe.

"These issues include sending Pakistani troops to Iraq, Islamabad’s recognition of Israel and the perceived Indian-Israeli-US nexus," Stratfor said.

"Al-Zawahiri is trying to provoke unrest within the military rank and file by saying Musharraf is neither capable nor willing to protect Pakistan from India — even going so far as to sideline Musharraf to sidelined Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat.

"For all its noise and gnashing of teeth, however, Al-Qaeda might actually be helping Musharraf in his efforts to bargain with Washington for military assistance," Stratfor said.

Musharraf easily could employ this threat as a bargaining tool both in Washington and at home, it added.

"Musharraf could present the tape as proof to the Bush administration that he is taking a risk by supporting the US war, which might buy him further support from Washington and perhaps even promised but undelivered military hardware.

"He also could use Al-Zawahiri’s threats as an excuse to strike out against potential troublemakers at home, possibly degrading Al-Qaeda’s capabilities in the country even further," analysts said. (UNI)

2 years in, US struggles toward Afghan stability

WASHINGTON, Oct 6: Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld calls the US military operation in Afghanistan a success, but two years into the mission Osama bin Laden and Taliban leader Mullah Mohammed Omar remain elusive and aid workers complain of deteriorating security.

Two years ago this week, President George W Bush launched a war in Afghanistan in response to the September 11, 2001, attacks on America blamed on bin Laden’s Al Qaeda and the Islamic fundamentalist Taliban Government, headed by Mullah Omar, that harbored the guerrilla network.

A unique US war plan relying on air power, stealthy special forces and collaboration with Afghan opposition fighters swept the Taliban from power in short order and scattered bin Laden and his followers.

But bringing stability to an impoverished country battered by conflict since 1979 and with a history of upheaval dating back to ancient times has proved a more daunting task, even for the world’s only superpower.

"People need to understand that the political situation in and around Afghanistan is intractable. It’s an almost insoluble challenge," said analyst Loren Thompson of the Lexington Institute.

"If we just take the simple example of our inability to find Osama bin Laden, when you look at the terrain, you look at the ethnic frictions, you look at the ambivalence of the Pakistanis, it isn’t hard to see why our strategy was going to produce mixed results."

The mission, which began with air strikes on October 7, 2001, is consuming US manpower and money, and there is no timetable for the end of American involvement. The Pentagon said 89 US troops have died in combat and accidents.

Nearly 10,000 US troops are in Afghanistan, hunting Al Qaeda and Taliban forces and searching for bin Laden and Mullah Omar, as well as helping reconstruction efforts. US and Afghan officials say bin Laden and Mullah Omar may be hiding in the rugged tribal belt between Afghanistan and Pakistan. For the fiscal year that started this month, Bush has asked Congress for 11 billion dollars to fund the US military effort and 800 million dollars for Afghan reconstruction.

Rumsfeld labels the operation a "success" and says the United States has kept its military "footprint" modest.

"In the last analysis, the task is to create an environment that’s hospitable for people, for investment, for enterprise, for commerce," Rumsfeld said in Kabul last month.

"Each time I come back ... I see progress here. I see a greater amount of economic activity. I see improved security. And it is reassuring."

Others are less reassured. US-backed president Hamid Karzai’s Central Government has limited influence outside Kabul, a 5,000-strong NATO-led peacekeeping force is concentrated in the capital, and Taliban officials have claimed to control pockets of territory.

"The security situation in Afghanistan has really sharply deteriorated in the last year," said Pat Carey, senior vice president of the relief organization CARE, which has been in Afghanistan for three decades and has 700 staff members there working on water, agriculture and other needs.

Carey said attacks on relief workers are on the rise, with two aid workers killed on September 24. Carey added that production of opium poppies is ballooning, and Afghanistan again has become the world’s top supplier.

Carey estimated that 20-30 billion dollars is needed to rebuild Afghanistan, and noted Bush’s Iraq reconstruction sum of 20.3 billion dollars was more than 20 times higher than his Afghanistan request.

The US military touts improvements in Afghanistan.

"Right now, there is more security and stability in most of Afghanistan than there’s been for the last 24 years," Army Col. Rodney Davis, spokesman for US forces in Afghanistan, said by telephone from Bagram air base north of Kabul.

"We believe that militarily we’ve been victorious," Davis added, saying whenever fighters loyal to Al Qaeda, the Taliban and Afghan warlord Gulbuddin Hekmatyar mass their forces in numbers greater than 10 "we kill them."

Davis said the US military shifted focus in July to "stability operations."

"We’re setting the stage for reconstruction to take off," Davis said, noting the deployment of four civilian-military provincial reconstruction teams of about 100 people, with four more planned in coming months.

"Afghanistan is a good-news story," Davis said. "We see results on a daily basis." (AGENCIES)

Major show of contemporary art works in Berlin

BERLIN, Oct 6: Visitors throng the art fair stands, looking at the vast collection of paintings, sculptures, film and photographic installations.

Berlin’s 7th international art forum is in full swing, reflecting the growing interest in worldwide contemporary art.

This year’s art fair has been trimmed in size. A hundred gallery owners from 24 foreign countries and four continents have stands, opposed to 150 in previous years.

The organisers insist this has been done only to avoid congestion and give visitors a better overview of the works displayed.

With its new format, the art forum aims at providing visitors with "better conditions for the investigation of contemporary art production," explains Sabrina Van Der Ley, the show’s director.

Renowned galleries from within and outside of Germany are in Berlin for either a first or a repeat participation. "Seventy-five per cent of the galleries here are returning exhibitors, with a clear majority of them coming from abroad," emphasises Van Der Ley.

Besides an extensive supporting programme of receptions and art openings the forum offers visitors the opportunity to discuss issues relating to contemporary art with guest speakers from across Germany and the world. Slovenia, Canada and Australia are centre focus points at this year’s "forum talks programme."

Foreign galleries from Australia, Canada, Sweden, Finland, Denmark, Austria, Spain, Italy, France, Belgium, Holland and Poland are strongly represented in Berlin.

But Russia and other eastern European countries have few participants, which is a blow for the organisers, who have in the past trumpeted their strong presence at the forum.

While not rated a major player in the art market world, Berlin still remains a magnet for artists from abroad, due to its affordable apartments and spacious studios - unlike in Paris, London and New York where rents can be enormously expensive.

Now, insiders report, the German capital is beginning to attract a wave of young entrepeneurs and gallery owners.

Bjoern Alfers, a young historian working for the Thomas Schulte Galerie in Berlin, confirms this saying, "Berlin may not be like Cologne where there are big collectors, but it is attractive to young gallery owners from western Germany, excited by the pulsing activity of the city."

Hundreds of painters and sculptors from neighbouring European countries, and also from cities such as London, Tokyo, Paris and Sydney, have settled in Berlin in recent years.

Australia has three galleries at the art forum, representing a group of artists, most of them from Melbourne, Sydney and Adelaide.

Simultaneously 14 of its cutting edge artists are featured in a separate exhibition called "face up" which takes place at Berlin’s Hamburger Bahnhof contemporary art museum.

Curated by the museum’s Britta Schmitz, the face up exhibition features about 30 works by the artists in the field of painting, sculpture, video/DVD and photography, and is the first of its kind in Germany to offer a comprehensive overview of contemporary Australian art.

Prominent among then are two "red shark sculptures" titled "down the hatch" by Callum Morton, a Melbourne-based artist. They are stationed at the entrance and exit to the face up show at the Hamburger Bahnhof.

"They swallow you up when you go in to the show, then spit you out on departure," Chuckles Deborah Hennessy, gallery director of the Anna Schwartz gallery in Melbourne.

Her gallery spotlights works by Callum Morton and Mikala Dwyer at the art forum. "I’m hoping that through the Berlin exposure Germans will get a taste and recognition of our artists," she adds

Hennessy terms the face up show "a highlight" of a two year Australia-Berlin cultural programme, which has received the backing of the Australia council for the arts, and the Berlin cultural fund and state museums in Berlin. (DPA)

Peace a hard lesson for Israeli, Palestinian students

BETHLEHEM, WEST BANK, Oct 6: Palestinian teenager Amira says Israelis are terrorists who kill for thrills. Israeli high school student orit says Palestinians are murderers and can’t be trusted.

Although Israeli and Palestinian teachers say they stress tolerance and play down stereotypes in new textbooks released in a bid at peace education, researchers say neither side has fully grasped the concept.

"You can’t demand that the books of any people broadcast something that is not in their reality," said Ruth Firer, Director of Peace Education Projects at Hebrew University’s Harry S Truman institute for advancement of peace.

The Palestinian curriculum, written after the 1993 Oslo accords that led to limited autonomy in the West Bank and Gaza strip, portrays Israelis as oppressors, ignores Israel’s point of view and mentions the Jewish state only incidentally.

Israeli schools do better at discussing Arab claims to land, but relate history through Israeli eyes and rarely talk of Palestinians.

Three years of violence, which began after talks on a permanent peace treaty failed, have provided their own subtext.

"We can’t live with terrorists. They love killing people," said 16-year-old Amira of the West Bank city of Bethlehem.

"They are all murderers," said 16-year-old orit, a resident of the Jewish settlement of Gilo overlooking Bethlehem. "We can’t reach a peace agreement with them. You can’t trust them."

Israeli Education Minister Limor Livnat has pointed to Palestinian textbooks as a source of incitement, telling the Israeli press that while Israel teaches children "to sing songs of peace, the Palestinians encourage theirs to become a shahid," the Arabic word for martyr.

Daniel Bar-Tal, a Professor of Social Psychology at Tel Aviv University, said textbooks have become political in Israel, where Palestinian suicide bombers have killed hundreds of people since an uprising for statehood began three years ago.

"They want to dehumanise the Palestinians in the eyes of the world and not solve the problem," said Bar-Tal. "This is not a matter of who is doing less or more."

Basri Salah, head of the international relations department at the Palestinian Education Ministry, said its textbook committees had worked hard to be objective.

"It is important for people to be hopeful and optimistic, which is hard when you face (Israeli) killings and shellings," said Salah.

The Palestinian curriculum is controlled by the Government and used in every school, but in Israel, Government supervision of schoolbooks was lifted in the 1990s.

As a result, study of Israeli curricula is difficult, complicated further by the country’s three separate streams of education: secular, religious and ultra-orthodox.

Following the 1993 interim peace deals, Israeli textbooks were revised to include the Palestinian version of recent history, from the establishment of Israel in 1948.

The texts available reflect the Gamut of Israeli public opinion on issues such as a Palestinian state and Jewish settlements, but firer said the extent to which they are taught now is questionable.

"They were an expression of hope and now we see a need to look (at things differently)," she said.

At the De La Salle High School in Bethlehem, where a Palestinian flag sits in the entrance hall alongside a photograph of Palestinian President Yasser Arafat, teachers say they try to instil tolerance, empathy for the oppressed and acceptance of diverse opinions.

The values, however, are taught as universal concepts to a student body touched by the deaths of two fathers from Israeli army gunfire and subject to Israeli travel restrictions.

"We don’t specify that you must love the Israelis, it is not the time for it," said Principal Michael Sansur. "How can you do that it when they are not enjoying their childhood and they are deprived of everything, of basic things?

"But if you bring them up to be good human beings, I am sure they will learn to love their enemies, and that they will not have enemies in the future." (AGENCIES)

Bush struggling to regain political footing

WASHINGTON, Oct 6: President George W Bush is struggling to regain his footing after a tough period in which he failed to generate international momentum for his Iraq plans, the US economy continues to struggle and the White House has come under investigation.

Bush’s popularity among Americans — which skyrocketed after his handling of the September 11, 2001, attacks — remains reasonably high, but it has slipped to pre-Sept. 11 levels in recent weeks.

The most recent CBS/New York Times poll put Bush’s approval rating at just above 50 per cent, and found voters split 44 per cent to 44 percent between Bush and an unnamed democratic opponent.

The last two weeks have been brutal for Bush, leaving the message-conscious White House on the defensive and faced with having to ride out the storm. Republicans are nervous with election day 13 months away and democrats finding a voice.

Behind the scenes, Bush and his team are keeping a stiff upper lip.

"He’s going to remain focused on the issues that the public is concerned about, a growing economy, our national security, and the President is going to continue to talk about our strategy to create jobs and plans to prevail in Iraq," said White House Communications Director Dan Bartlett.

Many of the problems Bush faces on Iraq have an uncertain outcome, from gaining international backing for postwar Iraq to finding Weapons of Mass Destruction, to a justice department investigation of White House staff.

The leak probe, which also includes the CIA, State Department and Pentagon, has the potential to damage a President who came to office promising to restore honor after the scandal-plagued Clinton years.

Investigators want to know whether someone from the administration illegally leaked the identity of a CIA agent whose husband, a former US diplomat in Iraq, Joseph Wilson, challenged Bush’s claims about the Iraq weapons threat.

White House staffers have until Tuesday to turn over relevant documents and the probe could go on for weeks, if not months, giving democrats the chance to shout about it.

Some are demanding a special counsel be appointed to lead the investigation, accusing Attorney General John Ashcroft of having a conflict of interest because he is a political appointee.

"I think our priority ought to be getting to the bottom of this ... Not flying off for yet another fund-raiser in Wisconsin," said Sen Tom Harkin, a Iowa democrat, when Bush was raising campaign cash in Milwaukee on Friday.

That same day brought a bit of good news for Bush, who quickly touted a report showing US employers added 57,000 jobs in September, the first gain in eight months but not big enough to bring down the unemployment rate.

Since Bush took office in 2001, about 2.6 million nonfarm jobs have been lost. Some 1.7 million people slid into poverty in 2002 and incomes slipped for the second year in a row.

The US economy is looming as the 800-pound gorilla for Bush’s re-election. He continues to insist the tax cuts he pushed through the US Congress will work if given time. Democratic candidates for President, meanwhile, are having a field day.

"Let’s get him fired so the rest of america can get hired," said one, retired gen. Wesley clark.

Another complication for Bush is the failure to find Weapons of Mass Destruction in Iraq, the stated reason for the war. CIA weapons hunter David Kay’s preliminary report that no weapons had been found set off fireworks in the capital.

Bush went out to the White House south lawn to underscore that Kay’s report, while unfinished, included plenty of evidence to suggest weapons programs had existed.

"I don’t make decisions based upon polls. I make decisions based upon what I think is important for the security of the American people," Bush said.

But democrats continue to accuse Bush of hyping the intelligence and not having more international involvement to take the strain off US troops.

US diplomats are trying to get a new UN resolution to create a multinational force for Iraq and are having difficulty as some members of the UN Security Council, which opposed the US-led invasion, seek a quicker transition to Iraqi self-rule. (AGENCIES)

Malaysia’s retiring Mahathir claims Anwar-sacking
was a hard call

KUALA LUMPUR, Oct 6: Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad has claimed that the sacking of his former Deputy Anwar Ibrahim in 1998 was the toughest decision he has had to make against a "friend" throughout his political career, a local daily reported today.

Mahathir, who is due to step down at the end of the month after 22 years in office, said he had "hated very much" to sack Anwar, who is now serving time in jail after being convicted of sodomy and corruption.

However, he claimed the decision was made for the good of the future of this mainly-moslem country, as Anwar showed he lacked "good character".

"I had to take an action which I hated very much because he was, after all, a friend," Mahathir said in an exclusive interview with the mainstream star newspaper.

"But for the sake of the country, I had to take action and forget about friendship and about my becoming unpopular.

"So that was something that was a very big regret."

The premier said he considered the Anwar crisis, which had greatly reduced his popularity on local and international shores, was harder to handle than even the crippling Asian financial crisis during the same period.

"(The financial crisis) was something that I had to handle anyway, but Anwar’s case was something that was very unexpected," he said.

"Anwar’s case was very unfortunate. I had to harden my feelings in order to handle it.

"I feel this put a strain on me."

After his sacking, Anwar was subsequently arrested and charged for sexual immorality and abuse of power while in office.

He claims he was set up by the Government after becoming a threat to his former mentor.

Seen by Washington as a political prisoner, the charismatic Anwar has also maintained that the Government rigged his trial and sentencing of a total 15 years’ jail. He has also lost two bail hearings since his arrest.

"He did something, he broke the law," said Mahathir.

"The police took action, but the people say that I directed the police and all that."

Mahathir denied any role in Anwar’s arrest and sentencing, saying instead that his former heir apparent was merely trying to gain political mileage out of his situation by claiming to be framed.

"It is not easy to direct the police (and) if you try that, immediately it will be known to everyone," he said.

"If you ask them to do something they don’t like, they will leak it out. I didn’t do anything."

The 77-year-old leader, who has had two other Deputy’s who have failed to ascend to premiership, noted that he could now finally retire as he had confidence in his current deputy, Abdullah Ahmad Badawi.

"Now, I find (Abdullah) is in place and he will be different from me. His style will be different, but that’s okay."

Mahathir, is seen as being solely responsible for bringing Malaysia out from the economic backwaters of a developing nation into one of Southeast Asia’s thriving economies.

A strong critic of western practises, including globalisation, the veteran leader has been seen as the voice championing the needs of third-world countries. (DPA)

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