BOTH PM, DPM ABROAD AT SAME TIME UNAVOIDABLE, SAYS M`SIAN DPM NAJIB

PETALING JAYA (Malaysia), Nov 19 (Bernama) -- The prime minister and deputy prime minister being overseas at the same time on official duty is unusual but unavoidable, Deputy Prime Minister Najib Razak said Tuesday.

He said it only showed that the government and the nation were
stable.

Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi is currently on an official visit to
Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan and is scheduled to return on Friday while
Najib is flying Tuesday night to London en route to Lima, Peru, to attend the
Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (Apec) summit at the weekend.

Najib said both Abdullah and he would be in close contact with the
ministers and top government officers while they were abroad. He spoke to
reporters after opening the Asia Pacific Regional Water Conference 2008,
here.

On Apec, Najib said he would attend two sessions, one of which was on the
global economic crisis and how nations could act collectively to reduce the
impact of the crisis and remedy the situation in a short time.

"The other will deal with food security, the environment and issues like
that," he added.
-- BERNAMA