(AFP) President George W Bush and Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad yesterday discussed US efforts to retaliate for September 11 terror strikes on New York and Washington and the attacks' economic impact.

"They discussed economic repercussions of the attacks. Both indicated that they look forward to exchanging views in more depth at the APEC meeting in a couple of weeks," said White House spokesman Ari Fleischer.

Both leaders "agreed that the unprecedented nature of the terrorist threat requires new types of tactics and new forms of international cooperation," said the spokesman.

Bush also thanked Mahathir for his condolences in the wake of the attacks and Malaysia's support for combatting terrorism, and emphasized that "the struggle was against evil and not against Islam".

The US leader has been working to rally an international coalition behind likely US retaliation for the attacks as well as an open-ended campaign against global terrorism and nations that support terrorists.