Former premier Dr Mahathir Mohamad wants a new High Court judge to hear his challenge against the report of the Commission of Inquiry on Foreign Exchange Losses by Bank Negara Malaysia in the 1990s.

This is disclosed by Mahathir's lawyer Mohd Haniff Khatri Abdulla after he met Justice Azizah Nawawi in chambers along with Senior Federal Counsel Shamsul Bolhassan appearing for the government.

Today had initially been fixed for hearing of the government's striking out application of Mahathir's suit.

Haniff said Mahathir wants to recuse Justice Azizah as she had decided in another of Mahathir's challenge against the composition of the RCI members namely its chairperson Mohd Sidek Hassan and Saw Choo Boon which she dismissed.

"The argument to strike out the suit is similar to the one decided by Justice Azizah and hence in such cases, when you have decided then the party can apply for the judge to recuse themselves," said Haniff.

Justice Azizah fixed May 17 for a decision on whether to recuse herself and also for case management for the government's application to strike out the suit.

Shamsul told reporters the government was applying to strike out the suit as it feels the findings of the RCI were non-justiciable and there was no reasonable cause of action.

Mahathir had filed the suit last December naming all six members of the RCI - namely Sidek, Saw Choo Boon, Kamaludin Mohd Said, Tajuddin Atan, K Pushpanathan and Yusof Ismail - along with Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak, the cabinet and the government as defendants.

Mahathir is seeking a declaration that the RCI's forex losses report was not valid in law and unacceptable as it does not include all the witness statements or testimonies of those who had testified, including the written or oral requests in the form of transcripts or video recordings and the submissions made by the lawyers.

The RCI report released in November last year had concluded that Bank Negara lost RM31.5 billion due to speculation in the forex market between 1992 and 1994.

Among others, the report blamed Mahathir, his former deputy Anwar Ibrahim and former minister Nor Mohamed Yakcop for the losses.