Former premier Dr Mahathir Mohamad said that should Pakatan-held states not call for simultaneous state elections with the general election, BN, the ruling coalition, would benefit.

In an interview with the weekend edition of Utusan Malaysia , Mingguan Malaysia, he said BN could focus all its resources to winning the general election without having to divert its energies to winning state elections.

"Hence it's highly possible that BN will retain power in the states they had won," he said.

The former strongman admitted that he too is unsure of the date of the general election, but thought that it would not be called before Hari Raya in August.

When asked whether external parties would be interested in Malaysia's election, Mahathir said United States definitely preferred Anwar Ibrahim over Najib Abdul Razak for the prime minister's post.

He also accused the US of allocating funds to NGOs to infiltrate into the general elections of certain countries.

For him, the US hopes to see a regime change in Malaysia because the current regime is supportive of China and Iran, and has never joined their military missions.