KUALA LUMPUR - MALAYSIAN Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, who is under intense pressure to quit, said he will announce by Wednesday whether he will step down in March.

Mr Abdullah had earlier suggested he may not seek re-election as leader of the ruling party, the United Malays National Organisation (Umno), in internal polls to be held in March.

The prime minister said his plan would be revealed in time for a high-level meeting on Wednesday of the Barisan Nasional (BN) coalition, which UMNO leads.

'Our colleagues in BN have already indicated that they would like to be briefed on what we are doing and what the plans are going to be,' he told reporters.

'They have said the president of Umno is naturally going to be the chairman of BN so they would like to have some information as to what is likely going to happen.' 'I will decide whether tomorrow (Tuesday) or Wednesday,' he added.

Mr Abdullah had originally planned to hand over to his deputy Najib Razak in 2010 but has been pressured into stepping aside earlier after losing support from the party's grassroots.

Umno has been in disarray since general elections in March this year that handed the opposition a third of parliamentary seats and five states, in an unprecedented blow for the coalition.

Traditionally the president of Umno - which leads a multi-racial coalition and has dominated Malaysian politics for half a century - becomes the prime minister.

Mr Abdullah has been criticised for failing to introduce promised reforms and mishandling the economy since he came to power in 2003.

He is also fending off a bid to topple the government by opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim, who says he has the support of enough defecting lawmakers to form a new administration. -- AFP