KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia's opposition on Monday rejected an offer by the ruling National Front coalition to form a partnership to run the country.

Prime Minister Najib Razak's ruling party has been wooing the opposition Pan-Malaysian Islamic Party (PAS) in a bid to split Pakatan Rakyat, the broad opposition alliance led by former deputy prime minister Anwar Ibrahim.

"The Pakatan Rakyat council of leaders reaffirm our rejection of the idea of forming a unity government with UMNO," Anwar told reporters after an hour-long meeting of opposition leaders.

"It is clearly a malicious and desperate attempt to compromise the integrity of the increasingly popular Pakatan Rakyat," he added.

Pakatan Rakyat, which groups PAS and two other opposition parties – Parti Keadilan Rakyat and the Chinese-dominated Democratic Action Party (DAP) – was formed to give its members a better chance of unseating the ruling coalition.

Veteran DAP leader Lim Kit Siang said the opposition pact would march forward to victory in the next polls, expected by 2012.

"We have gone through our first crisis of confidence in Pakatan Rakyat and this shows we are committed to move forward and this shows we are different from the National Front," he said.

The alliance snatched a third of parliamentary seats in an unprecedented performance in 2008 polls. PAS is the second largest political party in the country in terms of members.

In the 2008 elections, it succeeded in snatching huge swathes of Malay support from the once powerful UMNO, which has ruled Malaysia since independence in 1957.

Some of its leaders have expressed interest in holding talks with Najib's ruling United Malays National Organisation (UMNO).

But PAS president Abdul Hadi Awang flatly ruled out an alliance with the ruling party.


- AFP/so