Former prime minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad claimed today that the government was harassing and intimidating his relatives in an attempt to stop him from criticising his successor Abdullah Ahmad Badawi.

The 82-year-old politician said some of his relatives "have been warned by the police, warned by the ministers that 'you do these things, there will be serious consequences.'"

"I may not be arrested or put in jail ... but there are ways of hitting out. Maybe at my relatives, or some kind of unpleasantness can occur," he said in an interview with the Associated Press .

Mahathir also said that one relative, a businessman, had received calls from the Anti-Corruption Agency.

However the news agency reported that a senior aide to Abdullah dismissed the allegations as untrue.

In the interview, Mahathir said that people who criticise Abdullah run several risks they may receive threatening phone calls from the police, have their business contracts cancelled, or be asked by banks to repay loans.

"There is a climate of fear," he said, repeating what he had said in his statement this morning.

"I am taking a certain degree of risk by criticising the government. But since there is nobody else who would want to stick his neck out I have to do it," he said.

On Monday, Mahathir Mohamad said that Abdullah has turned the country into a police state .

The current atmosphere, he said, was preventing him from publicly airing his grievances toward the government.

Wrong judgment

Mahathir also said that he was ashamed to have hand-picked Abdullah as his successor.

"My judgment of people is faulty," he said.

"I had this man whom I thought is quite harmless. I thought he would continue, maybe improve on what I have done," said Mahathir.

"I fully expected him (Abdullah) to administer the country well, not (try) to prove that he is better than me by showing how bad I am," said Mahathir.

He handed over the reins of the government to Abdullah in October 2003 after holding power for 22 years.

In recent months, Mahathir has been Abdullah's most vocal critic, accusing the premier of corruption, nepotism and running a police state.

He expressed his unhappiness with Abdullah's style of government, and alleged that the premier's son-in-law Khairy Jamaluddin, son Kamaluddin and cronies were using their position to enrich their businesses and gain political influence.

"If Khairy is out of the way and does not influence him, it is quite likely he will not make such (bad) decisions," said Mahathir. "Not only Khairy but others his son, his cronies."

Yesterday Abdullah broke his long silence to hit back at his predecessor's accusations.