Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad has reportedly asked Philippine President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo to contest in her country's next president elections in May, according to a report today.

A Bernama report said the outgoing premier relayed this during his talks with Arroyo at the Imperial Palace in Tokyo where both were speakers at the international conference on the future of Asia.

A Philippines newspaper quoted the president's close aides as saying that Mahathir, who will step down in October, had requested her to stay beyond 2004 in order to resolve the secessionist conflict in Mindanao.

Last December, Arroyo stunned the nation when she announced that she would not run in the 2004 polls and would focus her remaining months in office on the country's political and economical problems.

The president is currently serving the unexpired four of the six-year term of ousted president Joseph Estrada which ends in June next year.

Similar appeals

United States President George W Bush has also asked Arroyo to reconsider her decision.

"Women politicians are entitled to change their mind," he was quoted as telling her during a state visit to Washington last month.

South Korean President Roh Moo Hyun echoed a similar appeal during Arroyo's official visit to Seoul early this week.

Malaysia has hosted several talks between Manila and the separatist Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) over the past years which led to the signing of a ceasefire pact.

The truce collapsed following renewed hostilities between the two, even as Kuala Lumpur sought another peace dialogue last month.

On Wednesday, US Ambassador to Malaysia Marie Huthala denied that Washington intended to take over the lead in the peace process.

"Because Malaysia has played a very helpful role as a formal broker for peace agreement in the southern Philippines ... we are not proposing to do that ourselves.

"We still see Malaysia as taking the lead but if there are ways we can be helpful in a sort of unofficial way, we will be interested in doing that," she said.