Khairy Jamaluddin, the son-in-law of premier Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, today confirmed that he had initiated a meeting with PAS leader Husam Musa but denied striking a deal on election petitions filed in Kelantan and Terengganu.

"Yes, I met with Husam," he confirmed when contacted.

He said the duo discussed various political issues and this included a 'general discussion' on the election petitions in both the states.

"Like what Husam said, the meeting was just a courtesy call. I congratulated him on his promotion because he is a (Kelantan) state executive councillor now.

"I only met him once, not few times as some people have alleged," stressed Khairy, who is touted as 'the country's most powerful 28-year-old'.

The Oxford University graduate has also received a landslide of nominations to contest the Umno Youth deputy chief post in the September party polls.

Certain quarters had claimed that Khairy and Husam reached an agreement to forego the election petitions filed by their respective parties in both states except for the Pasir Puteh parliamentary seat where the Election Commission conceded an error.

'What's wrong'

"As far as I am concerned, there was no deal, no negotiation," said Khairy.

Responding to a question, he said he had requested for the meeting, which he personally arranged.

"I called for the meeting. I called him from my mobile phone to his mobile phone and I dialed the number myself," he quipped.

He said there was nothing wrong in meeting an opposition leader and added that it would not affect his chances at the Umno polls.

"What's the big deal? We meet opposition leaders every day in Parliament, we don't have to scream at each other every time," he added.

Asked whether he had relayed what had transpired at the meeting to the premier, Khairy replied: "I just told the prime minister that I met with Husam."

Snap election

In an interview published in malaysiakini yesterday, Husam revealed that he had met Khairy on one occasion.

He said he told Khairy that PAS was trying to avoid the possibility of a snap election .

According to him, the duo discussed about the political consequences of the election petitions for the federal government in relation to the government's integrity.

Husam said he also told Khairy that if the courts were to decide in favour of Barisan Nasional, it could further erode the premier's integrity since many believe that BN won because of alleged election irregularities

In the March 21 polls, BN swept nine-tenth of the parliamentary seats while PAS suffered heavy losses with its parliamentary seats slashed from 27 to six. The opposition party also lost control of Terengganu.

However, PAS managed to cling on to Kelantan with a wafer-thin majority of three seats.

On June 23, the Kota Baru High Court struck out nine election petitions filed by both parties, challenging the outcome in seven state and two parliamentary seats in Kelantan.

On July 4, the Kuala Terengganu High Court also struck out all nine petitions filed by BN and PAS during a hearing in chambers.