ANWAR CLAIMS MOVING TOWARD FORMING NEW GOVERNMENT

Opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim today said he was moving towards forming a new government after landmark elections, with the help of defectors from the ruling coalition.

"I don't know how soon we can form the new government but we are moving in that direction," the former deputy premier, who was sacked and jailed a decade ago, told AFP in an interview.

The opposition parties, which jointly controlled 82 parliamentary seats, will be able to take over the federal government from BN if they gain another 30 seats. Anwar said that coalition lawmakers from Sabah and Sarawak had contacted him to discuss switching sides. The power bloc there could unseat the government if it changed hands.

The three-party opposition alliance made unprecedented gains in March 8 polls, seizing more than a third of parliamentary seats and four more states from the dominant Barisan Nasional coalition.

"The MPs from there have come here to see me," Anwar said, adding that he was in no hurry to become the next prime minister, but that the opposition would already be in power if the polls had been clean and fair.