SHANGHAI, Oct 20: Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad told US President George W. Bush on Saturday that international terrorism would not end until there was a resolution to the Middle East crisis.

Mahathir said he and Bush agreed to differ on Malaysia’s opposition to the US-led campaign against the Taliban, during talks before the start of the Pacific Rim summit.

“I explained to him the need to remove the causes of terrorism and I singled out the problem in Palestine as the most important cause,” the Malaysian leader told reporters.

Bush also urged an end to the conflict and said he supported Palestinian aspirations for statehood during their talks, Mahathir said.

“The problem, of course, he said was that every time they try to get people together, somebody goes and spikes the whole thing by assassinating, killing somebody or exploding bombs and things like that,” he said.

“So it’s difficult, but he thinks that it must be resolved. That is something that we agree.

“We don’t think this can be resolved overnight, but the solution of that problem, I pointed out, would resolve the feeling of frustration and anger in the Muslim world.”

On the Afghan campaign, Mahathir said Bush respected his position.

“It was a good meeting. I explained to him our support (against terrorism in general) and the reason why we find ourselves unable to support the operation against Afghanistan,” he said.

“He accepted the fact that we may differ on certain positions but we see eye to eye on this very important issue of terrorism, and also the need to revive the world’s economies because we feel that countries cannot develop unless world trade is restored.”

The two leaders also discussed the current wave of anthrax scares but Bush “didn’t blame Malaysia, didn’t link it to Malaysia at all”, said Mahathir, whose government has denied reports that one anthrax-laden letter sent to the US originated in Malaysia.—AFP