Bush rebukes Mahathir over speech

Mahathir Mohamad is hugely popular in Malaysia

US President George W Bush has personally remonstrated with the Malaysian leader, Mahathir Mohamad, over his recent remarks about Jews.

A White House spokesman said Mr Bush pulled Dr Mahathir aside at the Apec summit in Bangkok and told him his remarks were "wrong and divisive" and that they stood squarely against everything the president believed in.

The Malaysian leader told an Islamic summit last week that Jews ruled the world by proxy, and he called on Muslims to use their brains rather than force to overcome Jewish influence.

Dr Mahathir steps down at the end of the month after 22 years in power.

On Monday, Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon denounced Dr Mahathir's remarks as "slanderous" and criticised the reaction of Muslim leaders to Dr Mahathir's comments, the AFP news agency reports.

"It will take more time for the Arab world, and particularly Palestinian society, to understand that violence and extremism will only lead them to incalculable disaster."

Row

The controversy erupted last week after Mahathir Mohammed told a summit of Islamic countries that although "the Europeans killed six million Jews out of 12 million,... today the Jews rule the world by proxy".

Prime Minister Mahathir has been unapologetic about the speech which has been widely condemned as blatantly and provocatively anti-Semitic, says the BBC's Rob Watson who is travelling with the US president.

Dr Mahathir said the row only showed that it was somehow proper to criticise Arabs and Muslims, but not Europeans or Jews.