The Umno elections and the transition of power from party president Abdullah Ahmad Badawi to his deputy Najib Abdul Razak would be held as scheduled in March next year.

Abdullah said that the transition plan in place will take place as planned.

Talking to reporters in China where he is on an official visit, Abdullah said this in response to calls made by several Umno members for the party elections to be reverted to December this year.

"We already have a transition plan. The transition plan will be in March next year," he said, according to a Bernama report.

Abdullah is not seeking a re-election as the president and has said that he would hand over power to his deputy, Najib Abdul Razak, next March.

Originally the transition plan was to take place in mid-2010 with Umno polls slated for this December.

However, repeated calls for Abdullah to bring forward his retirement plan forced the premier to agree to a March handover.

As a result - to allow Abdullah to put in place some of his reform agenda - the Umno election is also put off to March.

But in recent weeks, several Umno members have asked for the polls to be brought back to December, which in a way put pressure on Abdullah to hand over the reins much earlier that he had wanted to.

It was reported in Utusan Malaysia yesterday that the matter would be discussed at the Umno supreme council meeting next Thursday.

However, Abdullah appeared not to have mentioned about the possibility of the party election being reverted to December.

There were earlier reports by some media organisations stating that the prime minister had said the supreme council would discuss the matter at its meeting next Thursday.

Cabinet reshuffle possible

On another matter, Abdullah said that a cabinet reshuffle was possible following the recent outcome of MCA's party election.

He repeated that he would meet newly-elected MCA president Ong Tee Keat to look into recommendations by the party.

"If he wants to make changes, he has to let me know first. When I go back, he can see me," he told reporters.

Abdullah is in Beijing to attend the seventh Asia-Europe Meeting (Asem) summit starting tomorrow. He is scheduled to return to Kuala Lumpur on Saturday evening.

At the recent MCA elections, former Health Minister Dr Chua Soi Lek, who resigned in January after a sex scandal, won the deputy president's post beating Housing and Local Government Minister Ong Ka Chuan.

Two other MCA deputy ministers also lost in the polls - Deputy Home Minister Chor Chee Heung and Deputy Unity, Culture, Arts and Heritage Minister Teng Boon Soon.