KUALA LUMPUR - Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad has voiced disappointment over Qatar's reluctance to support the staging in Malaysia of an emergency session of the Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC) o­n the Iraq crisis, a report said Sunday.

Malaysia has proposed hosting the summit after the upcoming Non-Alligned Meeting (NAM) which would be held from Feburary 20-25. It will bring together leaders or representatives from NAM's 114 member states.

"We are disappointed because so many heads of governments of OIC countries who are also members of NAM will be here and it is a good opportunity for us to meet and discuss informally so that we can have a common stand," Mahathir was quoted as saying by the Sunday Times newspaper.

"Foreign Minister (Syed Hamid Albar) had in fact contacted Qatar before this but they were not agreeable to having such a meeting here."

Qatar now holds the presidency of the 57-member pan-Islamic body.

Formal or informal

Mahathir said Iranian President Mohammed Khatami had suggested to him that a special session of the OIC be convened after the NAM summit.

"We will try to convene a meeting of OIC members in Kuala Lumpur, either formally or informally," he said.

Deputy Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi said a special statement o­n Iraq would be issued during the NAM summit in support of a peaceful settlement to the issue.

The statement would indicate NAM's strong stand against war, he was quoted as saying by Bernama news agency.

Abdullah said Malaysia would continue to call for the weapon inspectors to complete their work in Iraq.

"We will also call for the lifting of sanctions o­n Iraq if the inspectors are satisfied that Iraq does not have possession of mass destructive weapons," he said.

Asked o­n the United States' stand to launch military action against Iraq even if unauthorised by the United Nations, Abdullah said that it obviously reflected the arrogance of the superpower.

"In a way, certainly they are very arrogant," he said.

Command center

The proposal to convene an emergency meeting in Malaysia comes at a time when the United States is engaged in a massive military buildup in the Gulf as a prelude to an anticipated attack o­n Iraq.

Qatar, a close US ally, is likely to serve as the command center of a military campaign.

Mahathir said there was no clear evidence that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction.

"All they (weapons inspectors) are saying is that Iraq is not cooperating. How the Iraqis must cooperate, I don't know," he said.

Mahathir had said that Malaysia will not support a war against Iraq even if the United Nations Security Council gives the go-ahead. - AFP