Mahathir recalls 'worst moment' of career

The humiliation of Anwar, who challenged Mahathir and was subsequently jailed for 15 years on charges of sodomy and abuse of power, split Malaysia's majority ethnic Muslim Malays and for a time made Mahathir an outcast in he West.

"A lot of people were saying that I was deliberately getting rid of him. I had no such intention at all but I had to have some responsibility for the future," Mahathir said in a lengthy interview with The Star English-language daily.

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"If someone is going to succeed me, he must be of some good character," he said, mentioning Anwar several times by name -- something he rarely does.

"Because of that I had to take an action which I hated very much because he was, after all, a friend.

"So that was something that was a very big regret," he said, when asked what his toughest moment had been. Mahathir fired Anwar as the Asian financial crisis raged, and imposed capital and currency controls directly at odds with measures proposed by the International Monetary Fund. Anwar, who was finance minister as well as deputy prime minister, had been following the IMF's recommendations.

Anwar was arrested less than three weeks later, after he led thousands of people in anti-government street protests.

The IMF has since accepted that Mahathir's formula worked.

Anwar's trials were condemned by domestic critics and Western powers including the United States as politically driven.

His appeals continue, but Mahathir washed his hands of the case: "That is not for me to decide. He did something, he broke the law."

As Mahathir prepares to step down, the 78-year-old also addressed critics who say he indulged in nepotism, particularly towards his eldest son Mirzan.

"I give them no support at all. They never apply to me because they know I will not approve," he told The Star.