Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad said yesterday that the United Nations must be left to find a peaceful solution to the Iraq crisis despite US claims that Baghdad was concealing weapons of mass destruction.

"Our stand in the UN is until the UN is satisfied (that Iraq has weapons of mass destruction). Not until the US is satisfied," said Mahathir.

"Until the UN is satisfied, we shall not go to war with Iraq," he told reporters.

But Mahathir stressed that he did not see war as a solution to the crisis.

"Because the cost is high. Far too many people are going to be killed merely because you want to change the government," he said.

Bugged phone calls

Mahathir recently said Malaysia would cooperate with the United States in the war against Iraq but first demanded proof that Baghdad possessed weapons of mass destruction.

US Secretary of State Colin Powell, in a presentation to the Security Council o­n Wednesday, made public new intelligence data showing Baghdad's reluctance to abandon its weapons of mass destruction in violation of UN resolutions.

In an 83-minute speech, supported by satellite photos and tapes of bugged phone calls between military officers, Powell accused Iraq of "concealing their efforts to produce more weapons of mass destruction." - AFP