BANGKOK, Oct 20: US President George W. Bush pulled Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad aside on Monday and told him that his controversial remarks about Jews were “wrong and divisive,” a White House spokesman said.

As both leaders attended the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum, “the president pulled him aside between meetings and told him that what he said was ‘wrong and divisive,’” said spokesman Scott McClellan.

“It stands squarely against what I believe in,” McClellan quoted Bush as saying.

At the summit last week of the Organisation of the Islamic Conference in Malaysia, Mahathir said: “The Europeans killed six million Jews out of 12 million. But today the Jews rule this world by proxy. They get others to fight and die for them.”

He added that 1.3 billion Muslims could not be defeated by a few million Jews.

Mahathir’s remarks drew worldwide condemnation, but Malaysia said that Western nations over-reacted to the speech and took it out of context, and the comments were aimed at rallying the Muslim world.

The White House had earlier strongly suggested that Bush would issue a public denouncement of Mahathir’s comments, but the US leader instead upbraided him privately.—AFP