(AFP) - Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad played down the chances of an early retirement despite completing 20 years in power this month, a report said today.

"Whatever I do, I must think of its consequences. There are people who say that if I say things like this (quitting) there would be a scramble for power in the party, they don't want that.

"So what can I say? Say that I have plans that by next year I would retire?

You know what will happen, there would be a tussle," Mahathir was quoted as saying by New Sunday Times newspaper.

The newspaper conducted the exclusive interview on July 18, two days after the 75-year-old premier marked his 20th year in office.

Asked if he had again thought about quitting after hinting about it in 1997, he said: "Yes, I want to retire ... but I don't belong to myself, I belong to the public."

Heir apparent

Mahathir is president of United Malays National Organisation (Umno), which is the dominant party in the National Front coalition which has ruled the country since independence in 1957.

The premier said he was grooming heir apparent Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, his present deputy to take the baton of power, when asked if he would stay on after the 2004 general elections.

"I must be responsible, it is quite possible I drop dead tomorrow and I leave the party without a leader. That would be very, very irresponsible of me so I'm grooming the leadership. Pak Lah (Abdullah) is there," he said.

Mahathir said that he had been advised by his cabinet colleagues not to talk about stepping down.

But the premier expressed his desire to spend some years away from politics.

"I too want a few years for myself before I die, I want to write, I want to write a little bit, travel a bit," he said.

In the extensive interview, Mahathir lamented Malays' laziness ccompared to the local Chinese.

"Once I walked on a bund on a paddy field in Kedah. On one side Isaw a plot of land while on the other side it was not growing that well.

"I asked why it was growing well on this side and the reply was: "Oh it belongs to a Chinese."

Anwar's sacking

On corruption, Mahathir warned his Umno members that money politics would destroy the Malay race.

He also said that he did not want to sack his former heir apparent jailed ex-deputy premier Anwar Ibrahim.

"I did not want to sack Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim but he had done inappropriate things. I am responsible for the country. I could not have allowed such a person to be the prime minister," he said.

Anwar was sacked by Mahathir as deputy premier on September 2, 1998 on the grounds of immorality and detained 18 days later after leading mass anti-government protests.

He is serving a total of 15 years in jail after being convicted for abuse of powers and sodomy.

He calims he was framed to avert a political challenge to Mahathir, an allegation denied by the government.