Keadilan vice president Saifuddin Nasution has denied media reports alleging that he had met Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi with the intention to cross over to Umno.

"Yes I met Abdullah last night but we did not discuss politics. There was no mention of cross over whatsoever," he told malaysiakini when contacted this morning.

"Anwar Ibrahim's health was the main component of our meeting. That was the reason why I went to see the prime minister."

However, Saifuddin who is also the state assemblyperson for Lunas, refused to divulge the outcome of the meeting stating that the information is not for public consumption.

Saying he was aware that the irresponsible media reports had created some tension in the PAS-Keadilan coalition, Saifuddin added that he had to call a few PAS leaders to assure them that the allegations were false.

"I also called Datuk Mustafa Ali (PAS vice president) to give my assurance that I will not betray my commitment to Keadilan and its cooperation with PAS," he said.

He said he will release an official press statement this afternoon after attending a pre-elections meeting with PAS state leaders in Alor Setar.

Meanwhile Harakahdaily today reported that Saifuddin had met Abdullah to submit a latest medical report on Anwar's deteriorating health.

Latest medical report

The report also quoted lawyer Saiful Izham as claiming that he had received instructions from Saifuddin to initiate legal action against two national dailies, Berita Harian and the New Straits Times , which reported the allegations.

For the past month, several prominent names in Keadilan had defected to Umno arose starting with the crossover of 12 leaders led by former Keadilan Negri Sembilan chief Ruslam Kassin.

They were joined by 58 others - mainly grassroots leaders - on Thursday who submitted their Umno registration form to Deputy Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak.

Ruslan claimed there will be more defections in the near future.

Meanwhile, according to a Bernama report, Abdullah said that he merely "bumped" into the Keadilan state assemblyperson when asked whether he had met Saifuddin Nasution to discuss a specific matter.

"I just `bumped' into him...it's nothing," the prime minister said, declining to comment on press reports which stated that the Keadilan vice-president had had a meeting with him supposedly to join Umno.