Malaysia's ex-prime minister Mahathir Mohamad defended the presence of Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe at a peace gathering he is hosting in Kuala Lumpur, saying he had a right to air his views.

Mugabe was scheduled to deliver a speech at Mahathir's Perdana Global Peace Forum today, and turned up to hear a keynote address delivered by the former Malaysian leader yesterday.

"Well, a lot of people attend," said Mahathir when asked about Mugabe, who is accused of driving his country to ruin.

"Do we call only people who are like-minded? And then ask them to say 'yes' to everything? As much as we don't like 'yes men' for other people, we shouldn't ask people to be 'yes men' for us," he told reporters.

"I don't expect him to support peace or whatever. I don't know what he is going to say, but he is here."

Freedom of expression

Mahathir said everyone had a right to air their opinions, pointing to an earlier forum session in which a delegate disagreed with conference speaker, British lawmaker George Galloway.

"There are lots of people, like just now there was an English lady who was very offended by what Galloway says. Well, she has a right to speak," he said.

Mugabe spokesman George Charamba told AFP that the president had been invited to attend by Mahathir and would deliver a paper on civil wars in Africa.

Mahathir, who retired in October 2003 after 22 years in power, was an ally of Mugabe, with the two men sharing a love of anti-Western rhetoric stoked by a history of British colonialism in both countries.

But while Zimbabwe's economy has suffered under Mugabe's 25-year hold on power, Malaysia flourished under Mahathir, who turned it from a rubber and tin exporting country to a high-tech manufacturing powerhouse.

Some 2,000 delegates from 25 countries are attending the four-day forum, which yesterday saw prominent peace activists take the United States to task for its invasion of Iraq.