The Umno Kubang Pasu division's Wanita branch today passed a resolution calling Umno supreme council member Mohamed Nazri Aziz to be thrown out from the party.

At their annual general meeting in Alor Star this evening, the Wanita Lubuk Kawah branch members voted unanimously for the resolution calling for the sacking of Nazri, who is also Minister in the Prime Minister's Department.

The branch said the resolution was moved in light of Nazri's ill-mannered remarks towards former premier Dr Mahathir Mohamad following the latter's criticisms of Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi's administration.

Nazri Aziz on Monday accused Mahathir of trying to bring down the government and destroy Umno.

His scathing comments, made at a press conference in the Parliament, were the latest salvo in an increasingly acrimonious war of words between the former prime minister and the government.

"If he (Mahathir) wants to leave party, we won't stop him. If he remains in the party, he is acting like the opposition. It's better for him to be a 'jantan' (real man) and leave the party, become the opposition.

"Then it's also easier for me to attack him. Now if I want to fight with him, I will hesitate because he is the ex-PM," said Nazri at the heated 45-minute press conference.

Kubang Pasu's former MP

Mahathir still commands influence in Umno, but in a sign of his fading importance, political figures have lined up to condemn his campaign against the government which included comments that it lacked 'guts'.

He is the former member of parliament for Kubang Pasu and the district's former Umno division chief.

The former premier began his attack on Abdullah's administration in May after it scrapped a project to build a bridge to Singapore due to the island republic's opposition.

He also questioned state-owned carmaker Proton Holdings Bhd's decision in December to sell indebted Italian motorcycle unit MV Agusta for one euro.

Abdullah has avoided confronting Mahathir directly, a typical approach in Malay culture to respect an elder, but has used his deputies to rebut his predecessor.