The deadly bombings in Madrid proved that US President George W Bush had made the world a more dangerous place, former Malaysian prime minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad said today.

Bush had "a closed mind" and refused to heed warnings that invading Iraq would lead to an increase in terrorism, the outspoken Southeast Asian elder statesman told AFP in an interview.

"He wants to do something and he doesn't care about what others say. It's quite obvious lots of people were against the invasion of Iraq, but he just ignored all this."

Mahathir, who led this mainly Muslim nation for 22 years before retiring last October, rarely pulled his punches but this personal criticism of Bush went further than it did while he was constrained by his office.

He said he had written to Bush before the invasion of Iraq to warn that it would encourage terrorism rather than reduce it. Asked whether the attacks in Madrid had proved him right, he said: "I think so.

"That's what I told President Bush, it's the wrong move in the fight against terrorism to invade Iraq - but what is my voice?" he asked with a shrug which belied the fact that he had become a major spokesman for moderate Islam after the Sept 11 attacks on the United States.

A thorn

Mahathir, now 79, was welcomed by Bush at the White House as an ally in the war on terrorism in May 2002, but soon became a thorn in Washington's side as he began series of scathing attacks on US foreign policy.

Because of Bush's tactics in the face of terrorism the world "is now a more dangerous place," he told AFP , adding: "I feel some leaders do not understand at all that the fight against terrorism is different from normal war.

"Terrorists have their grouse, what they think are legitimate causes, and they will continue to do what they can. If you hem them in in one place they will pop up in another place."

Mahathir said the ousting of the Spanish government in elections after the train bombings which killed more than 200 people was based on the fact that voters had not agreed with the government's support for the Iraq war in the first place.

"The bombing would have amplified that feeling," he said, acknowledging that some people would see the change of government as a victory for terrorism after the attack was purportedly claimed by Osama bin Laden's al-Qaeda.

"This thing is escalating. If you believe in confrontation and beating down your enemy and then he hits back, we are not going to have peace in this world."

Islamic fundamentalist

Mahathir was speaking ahead of elections in his own country on Sunday, where the moderate government inherited by his successor, Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, is facing a challenge from religious fundamentalists in the Islamic party PAS.

Mahathir said he did not think the international situation would have much effect on the Malaysian electorate as the ruling party and PAS both "believe the war against terrorism is badly conducted."

Mahathir likes to call himself an "Islamic fundamentalist" partly because, as he once admitted in parliament, it shocks western audiences.

Abdullah, on the other hand, says he is promoting a "modern and progressive" form of Islam.

Asked about this difference, Mahathir, still a trim, slight figure in a characteristic olive safari suit, told AFP in his book-lined office on the outskirts of this new administrative capital of Islamic domes and spires which he created: "Progressive and modern Islam is basically fundamental Islam." - AFP