While former opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim said he is prepared to assist the task force on foreign exchange losses headed by former chief secretary to the government Sidek Hassan, he urged that this not be used politically to divert from current issues at hand, including 1MDB.

Anwar told reporters on the sidelines of his defamation case against Khairy Jamaluddin that his preference is to have a Royal Commission of Inquiry on the issue as it would be comprehensive.

However, if the government is going ahead with the task force, he is also willing to assist.

The evidence on the forex losses, Anwar said, is there with the witnesses, as then Bank Negara governor Jaffar Hussein had told the cabinet what went wrong.

"The cabinet even proposed to remove Nor Mohamed Yakcop, who is blamed for the loss. However, he was not and he was then made the second finance minister," he said.

Anwar added that despite Nor Mohamed knowing about this, he now remained in Khazanah Nasional.

He added that former Bank Negara governors Zeti Akhtar Aziz and Ahmad Mohd Don were also still around to help.

He hopes that the task force would not be used for other purposes.

Anwar said this includes diverting from the pressing issues currently faced by the government, regarding the economy and 1MDB.

He added these were pressing issues that the country was facing.

It was reported that the cabinet last week decided to form the task force to probe Bank Negara's forex losses in the 1990s and to identify those responsible for it.

The move is seen as discrediting Dr Mahathir Mohamad, who has now become a vocal critic of Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak since Anwar was imprisoned.

Mahathir himself said earlier this week that he was willing to assist the task force - on condition that the authorities apply the same level of scrutiny on Najib's handling of 1MDB.