Deputy Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi cited the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (Sars) outbreak among his main challenges during a two-month tenure as acting prime minister.

"That's certainly a big challenge," he was quoted as saying by Bernama at a function in Cyberjaya today.

The deputy premier added that he was glad that Malaysia was not placed o­n the World Health Organisation (WHO)'s watchlist.

Abdullah became the acting premier after Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad went o­n a two-month leave. The premier returned to work today.

The Iban bible issue

According to the o­nline version of the New Straits Times , Abdullah also said that issue pertaining to the banning of the Iban bible or Bup Kudus was also equally challenging.

"The confusion arose when we found the use of the word Allah Taala which refers to Muslim God in this particular book. After checking, we found that the book was actually the Iban bible and the word Allah Taala was used to mean their God," the daily quoted him as saying.

Following protests from various quarters, Abdullah directed the ministry to lift the ban, which was announced o­n April 8. The ban was lifted o­n April 26.

The deputy prime minister said that the matter could have turned into "a very difficult problem" if immediate measures were not taken to correct it.

A good lesson

In the Bernama report, responding to a question o­n whether he saw the experience as an o­n-the-job training to take over the premiership, Abdullah replied: "To me, at any time...always o­n training. At any time in any job, you must always learn.

"I will remember what I've done, if it was good, it would be a good lesson. If it's bad, it's also a lesson."

The deputy premier, known as 'Mr Clean', added that he was not seeking compliments as he had merely exercised what was required of him.

Abdullah will take over the Umno presidency and prime minister position from Mahathir after the latter who has been in office for 22 years steps down in October.

He was appointed deputy prime minister in 1998 after the sacking of Anwar Ibrahim, who was later charged and convicted for sodomy and corruption.

Putrajaya development

On another matter, Abdullah said the development in the country's administrative capital Putrajaya would proceed as schedule despite the economic uncertainties due to the war in Iraq and the Sars outbreak.

"There is no plan to slow down or postpone work o­n Putrajaya as it was built for the future," he said.

He added that it was not worthwhile to reschedule the development according "to the ups and downs of the economy."

"If we wait for the economy to improve, it might decline further when we complete the project," he said.

Based o­n reports, the development cost of the administrative capital is estimated at RM3.2 billion.

Critics have labelled Putrajaya, especially the prime minister's official residence which cost RM200 million, as a waste of money.