Malaysian Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad said that US President George W Bush was lying when he claimed to have rebuked him over his remarks about Jews ruling the world, the official Bernama news agency reported.

"It's the biggest lie. If he had rebuked me I'm quite sure I would have rebuked him also," Mahathir was quoted as saying when he arrived home after a series of visits to neighbouring countries.

Mahathir said it was common for someone who could lie about the existence of weapons of mass destruction in order to go to war (in Iraq) to lie about what he had said, the agency reported.

The prime minister told reporters that from what he remembered Bush had pulled him aside at an Asia-Pacific summit in Bangkok last week only to explain why he had made such a strong statement over Mahathir's remarks about Jews.

"I think he wants to support his officer (White House spokesman Scott McClellan)," Mahathir said.

McClellan said last Monday that Bush had pulled Mahathir aside at the summit to denounce his "wrong and divisive" comments.

A day later, Mahathir insisted that Bush had not rebuked him. "All he told me was: I regret having to use strong words against you," the Malaysian leader said.

"He did not rebuke me at all and after that, we were walking practically hand-in-hand."

However, Bush insisted Wednesday that he had in fact delivered a rebuke.

'I just told him'

In a briefing on his Australia-bound airplane after the summit, Bush said he had pulled Mahathir aside at the Thailand gathering to tell him personally that he thought the comments were "reprehensible."

"I said, 'they're divisive and unnecessary.' I didn't yell at him, I just told him," the US president told reporters.

The comments in question were made by Mahathir at the summit of the Organisation of the Islamic Conference (OIC) in Malaysia in mid-October.

Mahathir said then: "The Europeans killed six million Jews out of 12 million. But today the Jews rule this world by proxy."

The notoriously outspoken Asian leader, whose comments drew global condemnation and outrage from Western nations, added that 1.3 billion Muslims could not be defeated by a few million Jews. - AFP