KUALA LUMPUR, Nov 2: Malaysia's outspoken former prime minister Mahathir Mohamad said it would be "a disaster" if George W. Bush was re-elected in Tuesday's US presidential election.

Urging American Muslims to back Democrat challenger Senator John Kerry, Mahathir said Kerry was unlikely to repeat Bush's mistake of alienating Muslims if he won.

Latest opinion polls can barely separate the two contenders.

"It would have been obvious to the Americans that Bush was on the wrong track," Mahathir told Reuters in an interview.

"He told lies, obvious lies, when he told the Americans there were weapons of mass destruction and that the Iraqis were capable of launching attacks on America.

"I feel that if you vote Bush in, then it means you are approving all the things he has done," Mahathir added. "That would be a disaster."

At the last US election and while he was still in power, Mahathir told Americans to support Bush against Al Gore, the man he accused of supporting former deputy premier Anwar Ibrahim.

Anwar was jailed by Mahathir's regime on charges of corruption and sodomy. He was freed in September, some 10 months after Abdullah Ahmad Badawi took over from Mahathir as prime minister. -Reuters