Former premier Dr Mahathir Mohamad has clarified the 'factual errors' contained in the column penned by New Straits Times (NST) deputy chairperson Kalimullah Hassan.

The clarification was made via a letter , published by the daily today, written on behalf of the former premier by his aide, Sufi Yusof.

In the Sunday column titled ' And who, really, is demonising whom? ' Kalimullah, among others, claimed that Mahathir had sought a meeting with Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi in Tokyo and had summoned the foreign media to hear his tirade against his successor in Kuala Lumpur.

According to Sufi, the former premier did not call for the meeting when both the leaders were attending the Nikkei Conference in Japan.

"In fact, it was the opposite. Mahathir was only informed by a third party that the prime minister was on the way to call on him 20 minutes before he was due to leave the hotel on May 26.

"To this, Mahathir agreed and the two leaders met for about 10 minutes before Mahathir had to take his leave," he said.

Foreign press

Sufi also said that Mahathir did not invite the foreign press to, "in your words, 'lambast Abdullah and his administration'".

He claimed that the press conference on June 7 was called to announce the Perdana Leadership Foundation's Global Peace Forum to be held from June 20-22.

The foreign press was there for that purpose, he said.

"However, as in all press conferences, the foreign press took advantage of the opportunity to ask questions on other matters," he added.

Sufi also clarified that former NST boss Abdullah Ahmad does not hold any formal post as an adviser of Mahathir.

In his column, Kalimullah wrote that Abdullah - whom he described as an 'adviser' - had arranged for Mahathir's interview with malaysiakini .

"Individuals are free to give their views, opinions or advice to Mahathir. Many do that voluntarily. However, that does not make them 'advisers'," explained Sufi.

Matter closed

Meanwhile, NST has decided to bring the spat between Mahathir and Abdullah to a close as far as its letters page was concerned.

At the bottom of the Mahathir letter, a note from the editor read:

"We have received many letters in support of Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi. Because they express similar sentiments to the correspondence already published, we have decided to bring this subject to a close."