Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad, who is the new Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) chairperson, said today he would write to the members of the United Nations Security Council to ask them to avoid a war o­n Iraq.

"I will certainly write, even in my own personal capacity as the prime minister. I have been writing to a lot of people to try to influence them.

"There is no harm in writing as chairman of NAM to the Security Council and its members," he was quoted as saying in a Bernama report.

The UN Security Council's permanent members are France, Russia, United Kingdom, United States and China while the current non-permanent members are Germany, Guinea, Mexico, Pakistan, Spain, Syria, Angola, Bulgaria, Cameroon and Chile.