BANGKOK - The White House strongly suggested today that US President George W Bush would publicly condemn Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad's widely denounced comments about Jewish influence.

"It's not the first time he's made outrageous comments. Those were hate-filled remarks," Bush spokesman Scott McClellan said as the US president attended the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (Apec) forum here.

Asked whether Bush would publicly repudiate Mahathir's comments at an APEC leaders' joint appearance later, McClellan repeatedly told a large group of reporters: "You'll want to tune in to the leaders' remarks."

At the summit last week of the Organisation of Islamic Conference in Malaysia, Mahathir said: "The Europeans killed six million Jews out of 12 million. But today the Jews rule this world by proxy. They get others to fight and die for them."

He added that 1.3 billion Muslims could not be defeated by a few million Jews. - AFP