The Asian Wall Street Journal carried an embarrassed correction today after running a picture of a top terrorist suspect which it identified as Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad.

The illustration of Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, allegedly the al-Qaeda mastermind behind the Sept 11 attacks o­n the United States, was carried in an article o­n Malaysia in the AWSJ yesterday captioned "Mahathir Mohamad".

The newspaper published a correction today saying: "The error was entirely unintentional and wasn't intended to make any implications concerning anyone in Malaysia."

'Head full of hair'

Malaysian government is extremely sensitive to any suggestions that the country has links to international terrorism and has detained dozens of alleged Islamic militants in the past two years.

Mahathir himself, a regular critic of the Western media, has won praise from the White House for his support of the war o­n terrorism. Khalid Sheikh Mohammed (right) is in US custody after having been captured in Pakistan recently.

The Journal's error was reported by the New Straits Times daily here today, which pointed out that the illustration of a "balding man with a beard" did not "at all resemble clean-shaven Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad who has a head full of hair." AFP