Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad left here today to attend this week's extraordinary summit of the Organisation of the Islamic Conference (OIC) in Qatar.

The Doha summit o­n March 5 comes o­n the heels of the "informal" OIC talks o­n the Iraq crisis which was held here last week, immediately after the two-day Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) summit.

Qatar, which holds the presidency of the 57-member pan-Islamic body, has called for the summit to discuss the current regional situation in light of a possible US invasion of Iraq.

The United States is engaged in a massive military buildup in the Gulf as a prelude to the anticipated offensive.

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

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

The 77-year-old prime minister had said there was no clear evidence that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction. After the summit, Mahathir will go o­n a two-month vacation until May 4. AFP