(AFP) Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad will skip next month's Commonwealth leaders' summit in Australia because of a busy schedule, a foreign ministry official said today.

"The cabinet has decided a long time ago, even before the bombings in the US, that the prime minister is not attending because he has prior engagements," the official told AFP.

Mahathir's deputy and designated sucessor, Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, will represent Malaysia at the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) in Brisbane, he added.

The Malaysian leader also missed the 1999 CHOGM in Durban after he announced a snap general election, in which he again led the ruling coalition to victory.