Former prime minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad confirmed that Malaysia provided Zimbabwe's President Robert Mugabe with timber for his lavish 25-bedroom mansion, reports said today.

Mugabe, in a recent interview with Britain's Sky News , said that the Malaysian and Chinese governments were providing partial funding for the nine-million-US-dollar mansion near Harare.

The comments prompted outrage in Malaysia.

Mugabe, who has ruled the southern African country for the past 24 years, did not disclose the exact sum involved or when the money had been channelled to him but said Mahathir had also provided the timber for the structure.

Nothing wrong

"Yes, we did give Zimbabwe timber, but what's wrong with that?" Mahathir was quoted as saying by the New Straits Times .

Mahathir said there was nothing extraordinary about the gift, which he described as usual practice in promoting Malaysian timber.

He was responding to allegations that the gift amounted to a misuse of public funds, the paper said.

"There's nothing wrong with giving Zimbabwe the timber. China too provided marble to Zimbabwe," he was quoted as saying by the Malay-language Utusan Malaysia .

Close ally

A political row erupted in Malaysia last month following Mugabe's remarks as opposition party leaders and rights groups expressed outrage at Malaysia's reported support for Mugabe, who is accused of driving his country to ruin.

Mahathir, who retired last October after 22 years in power, was an ally of Mugabe's, with the two men sharing a love of anti-Western rhetoric stoked by a history of British colonialism in both countries.

But while Zimbabwe's economy has suffered under Mugabe, Malaysia flourished under Mahathir, who turned it from a rubber and tin exporting country to a high-tech manufacturing powerhouse. - AFP