A lawmaker close to Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi said today a controversial plan to mediate a dispute with his predecessor Mahathir Mohamad should be dropped.

"Drop the idea of a mediator. Any attempt to resolve the crisis has to be done discretely," Hilmi Abdul Rashid, a senior member of Umno and a close aide to Abdullah, told AFP .

"Too much publicity has been given to this plan and it has created too many expectations," added the state assemblyman in Penang, describing the rift between the two leaders as "personal" and "a family problem".

Mahathir has bitterly attacked Abdullah in recent weeks, criticising his policy decisions and even expressing regret that he had chosen Abdullah to take over from him in 2003, saying he had been "stabbed in the back."

Information Minister Zainuddin Maidin said last Friday the Umno, which is led by Abdullah, was working to bring the two together to patch up their differences.

Plan under attack

At the weekend, The Star newspaper reported that veteran politician Mohamad Khalil Yaakob, a former minister under Mahathir, would serve as mediator.

But the plan came under attack from some party leaders, with Deputy Prime Minister Najib Razak, who also serves as Umno deputy president, saying Zainuddin would be hauled in to explain his mediation proposal.

Hilmi said Abdullah's leadership in Umno and the government remained strong despite the torrent of criticisms by the 80-year-old Mahathir.

"Abdullah's position is not threatened at all. Umno is with him," he said, adding that Abdullah has been surprised by the stream of verbal attacks from Mahathir.

Hilmi said some Umno veterans were already working behind the scene to resolve the dispute, while the New Straits Times newspaper reported today that there was no official party approval for the mediation plan.