Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak and PAS mouthpiece Harakah are exploring the possibility of settling a defamation suit the premier filed over a report on his stepson Riza Aziz and 1MDB.

Both parties informed this to Court of Appeal president Justice Md Raus Sharif, who heard the matter during case management today.

As a result, the Court of Appeal has fixed July 11 for parties to inform the court the outcome of their negotiation to settle the suit, Najib's lawyer Mohd Hafarizam Harun said.

Najib has two appeals before the Court of Appeal in relation to this case namely – amending his statement of claim to insert the statement by attorney-general Mohamed Apandi Ali that he had been cleared of wrongdoing regarding MDB; and Najib's application to go into the case without calling witnesses.

Both applications were dismissed by trial judge Justice Hue Siew Kheng.

Justice Hue had thrown out Najib's application to amend the statement of claim to insert Apandi's statement and the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission's statement on April 7.

On May 23, the High Court judge also dismissed Najib's application under Order 14A of the Rules of Court 2012, as she ruled the defence of 'qualified privilege' and 'fair comment' were questions of facts and law, and that the matter could only be resolved in a full trial.

Last week, it was reported that Najib was granted a stay of the trial proceedings which was scheduled to begin on Thursday, after the Harakah lawyer concurred that the two appeals have yet to be heard and decided.

Initially earlier this month, Justice Hue did not grant a stay of the proceeding, and ordered the trial to go on, before last week's Court of Appeal move to give the stay.

Najib named Harakah managing director Dr Rosli Yaakop and Harakahdaily chief editor Taufek Yahya as defendants in the defamation suit filed on March 18 last year, following the publication of the article which was mainly based on a New York Times report.

In his statement of claim, Najib had said the article portrayed him as having misused 1MDB funds and that the publication of the article was intended to tarnish his reputation.

Besides this suit, the premier and Umno president has five ongoing suits, namely against Malaysiakini, PKR vice-president Rafizi Ramli, DAP national publicity secretary Tony Pua, and former MCA president and former transport minister Dr Ling Liong Sik.

He has, however, settled his defamation suit with Taiping MP Nga Kor Ming of the DAP.