Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad will discuss the Palesitinians' plight with US President George W Bush when he visits the United States next month, reports said today.

"I have promised to the Palestinian representative (Faruq Qaddumi, who acts as the Palestinian authority's foreign minister) to convey their problems to Bush," Bernama news agency quoted him as saying.

Mahathir said Israel looked like it would ignore the urgings of the international community to withdraw its forces from the Palestinian territories inside the West Bank.

"It looks like Israeli is stubborn and proud," he said.

Asked how Malaysia would like to assists the Palestinians, he said: "We can only urge, we cannot go to war."

Members of the opposition and civil activists are planning a demonstration outside the United States embassy on Friday to protest Israeli army action against Palestinians in the West Bank.

"We hope to assemble some 5,000 people," Mahfuz Omar, youth chief of the Parti Islam SeMalaysia (PAS) told AFP Sunday.

"Our message is to call for an immediate withdraw of Israel's military from the West Bank. The killing of Palestinians must stop."

Asked if PAS supports sending fighters to help the Palestinians, Mahfuz said: "I support deploying fighters, but the Malaysian government must agree to it.

"It makes no sense for Islamic countries to declare Israel as a terrorist state if they are not willing to fight the terrorists to end the violence," he said.

First visit

A Malaysian official recently said the date for Mahathir's US trip would be in the second week of May, although an exact date had yet to be set.

Other issues likely to dominate the meeting between Mahathir and Bush include terrorism, trade and economic issues. The US is Malaysia's key trading and investment partner.

It will be Mahathir's first visit to the White House since 1994 when he met Bush's predecessor, Bill Clinton.

Relations between the two countries have improved after the Sept 11 attacks on the United States, which has praised Malaysia's cooperation in efforts to combat terrorism.

Bilateral ties had weakened previously when Clinton's deputy, Al Gore, was seen to express support for anti-government demonstrators at an Asia-Pacific regional conference in Kuala Lumpur.