If unilateralism becomes the norm of international life it will lead to "chaos and catastrophe", Russian President Vladimir Putin said in remarks published today.

Putin was responding to a question on the US-led invasion of Iraq in an exclusive interview with the New Straits Times ahead of a planned visit to Malaysia, a mainly Muslim Southeast Asian nation.

The trip, which was to have begun Tuesday, was postponed after suicide bombers killed 13 people at a weekend Moscow rock concert.