PUTRAJAYA - Malaysia's entrepreneurs and foreign investors can sleep easy prime minister-in-waiting Abdullah Ahmad Badawi should find taking over the helm of o­ne of Southeast Asia's fastest developing economies a piece of cake.

Abdullah's official caution in an exclusive interview with AFP dissolved into undisguised delight when the traditional Malay rice vermicelli cake, a crispy, lacy confection provided with coffee, was a success.

"I'm happy you finished it," he said. "We are thinking of exporting them. They are supposed to replace corn flakes for breakfast."

Abdullah, 63, is currently deputy to Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad, who is credited with dragging Malaysia from the commodity-based economic backwaters into the manufacturing mainstream of Asian exporters in his 21 years in power.

But o­n Thursday Abdullah begins a two-month stint as acting prime minister while Mahathir is o­n leave, and in October he takes over for good.

Malaysia, a humid, jungle-clad Southeast Asian nation bordering Singapore, is sometimes described as the world's most economically successful Islamic state, and Abdullah made it clear that he intends to keep it that way.

Kiss or the fist

His ambitions at the moment are confined to a spacious office between the national religion, exemplified in an imposing mosque, and the office of a national icon, Mahathir, in Putrajaya, a new administrative capital of lakes, domes and spires a half-hour drive from Kuala Lumpur.

The biggest picture o­n the wall seems designed to reinforce Abdullah's reputation as "Mr Nice Guy" showing him bowing low to kiss his mother's hand o­n the day he was appointed deputy prime minister in 1999. But in the waiting room visitors are faced with a different image Abdullah with clenched fist raised in classic politician's pose.

Whether the kiss or the fist will dominate when he takes over remains to be seen: he has been parsimonious over granting interviews since being named last July as successor to Mahathir and still keeps any plans for change close to his chest.

Abdullah will face an early test of his popularity in a general election which must be held by the end of 2004, 14 months after he takes over as prime minister in a country where an entire generation has known no leader other than Mahathir.

Symbol of luck

He is candid about the problems he faces in a multicultural society with radical Islamists o­n o­ne side and an economically-powerful Chinese minority o­n the other.

Beneath the picture of his humility before his mother is a large tank containing a single flowerhorn fish, a Chinese symbol of good luck.

It is not clear whether it is there simply for its beauty, as a mark of respect to Malaysia's multiculturalism, or as an acknowledgement that he is going to need a bit of luck to step successfully into Mahathir's shoes. AFP