BEIRUT - Malaysian Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad called on the first day of a visit here yesterday for closer economic links with Beirut following talks with his Lebanese opposite number Rafiq Hariri.

"I hope this visit together with businessmen from Malaysia would help to build a greater economic interaction between Lebanon and Malaysia," he told a press conference.

Mahathir, heading a delegation also including four ministers, said he was "amazed by the tremendous reconstruction" in downtown Beirut over the past five years since his last visit to post-war Lebanon.