Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi today broke his silence on the continuous criticisms by his predecessor by calling them "doses of venom".

Abdullah said that he was ready to explain in time on all the issues raised by Dr Mahathir Mohamad at the one-to-one meeting last Sunday.

However, added the prime minister, Mahathir suddenly launched renewed attacks without waiting for any explanation.

"He repeated again with a stronger doses of venom... what else can be done? He wants to continue," said Abdullah, as quoted by Bernama .

He was talking to reporters at his Hari Raya open house in Penang.

Abdullah also said that he did not want to quarrel with Mahathir, who handed over the reins of the government after 22 years to Abdullah in 2003.

The prime minister added that he was disappointed and regretted Mahathir's action in continuing to criticise the government.

"During Hari Raya many people came and asked me... I'm sad and disappointed... I hoped he would wait for my explanation... I feel sad about it because I've to take time to respond... but he repeated again," he said.

Abdullah seemed to have resigned to fate as to what will happen next. When asked about the next possible move, he said: "God knows".

Reconciliation meeting

After months of public spat between the two, they finally met for a reconciliation talk at Abdullah's official residence Seri Perdana in Putrajaya last Sunday.

The meeting between Mahathir and his hand-picked successor took two hours and at the end of the meeting, Mahathir held a press conference saying that he will continue to criticise Abdullah and the government until changes were made.

He then held another press conference the following day in which he renewed his attacks against Abdullah.

Mahathir has accused Abdullah of economic mismanagement, corruption and nepotism.

He had expressed discontentment over various issues like the scrapping of a proposed bridge linking Malaysia and Singapore and the issuance of Approved Permits (APs) for imported vehicles.

When cornered by reporters on Tuesday, Abdullah refused to be drawn into the latest round of attacks by Mahathir. He said that he will respond at another time.

However his ministers and party colleagues were quick to defend him.

Not a police state

Today, Abdullah responded to some of the issues raised by Mahathir in the past few days.

He said that some of the issues as mentioned by Mahathir were not true, especially the claim that the country had become a police state .

Abdullah said that Malaysia was a country where the rule of law was respected and that he has no intention to turn it into a police state.

"The country that survives is the country that respects the laws. We don't curtail the people's freedom. We respect the laws in a democratic nation," he said.

Abdullah, who is also internal security minister, said nobody should be afraid of the police if they had not flouted the law.

Mahathir had said that the current atmosphere in the country was preventing him from publicly airing his grievances toward the government. He added that the police were threatening people from being associated with him.

Meanwhile Mahathir has been reported as saying in the media today that he was "down but surviving" after all the controversies surrounding his meeting with Abdullah.

"There are ups and downs in life. Now I am down...I am surviving," said the former prime minister.