KUALA LUMPUR, September 23 (IslamOnline) - Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad received an SOS phone call from Palestinian President Yasser Arafat.

After the phone call, Mahathir, who is in Copenhagen, has urged world leaders to pressure Israel into stopping its attacks on the Headquarters of the besieged Palestinian President.

Malay Foreign Minister Syed Hamid Albar said that the Prime Minister has written letters to U.S. President George W. Bush, German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder and French President Jacques Chirac on Israel’s occupation of Arafat’s Headquarters, Star newspaper reported.

“Mahathir will bring up the matter with Chirac, Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi of Italy and European Commission President Romano Prodi, when he holds meetings with them,” Albar said.

“The Prime Minister will impress on these leaders the need to look at the root cause of terrorism in the Middle East if Europe is serious on combating it,’’ he added.

On Saturday, September 21, Mahathir told reporters during a stopover in London he was concerned that if something serious happened to Arafat, the Islamic world would see him as a martyr.

“I fear many people would then become angry,’’ he added.

He said the Palestinian President telephoned him the previous evening informing him of his virtual “house arrest” and urging him to speak out for the Palestinians.

He described the Israeli bombing of Arafat’s offices in Ramallah as vicious and dangerous.

Mahathir said he believes that the Israelis wanted to get rid of Arafat, but he wondered whether the Palestinian President’s downfall would stop resistance attacks.

He feared that there might be even more such attacks by individuals not linked to any Palestinian organization.

“Hamas does not take orders from Arafat,” he said.

Star quoted Mahathir as warning that the Israeli-Palestinian conflict threatened to get out of control.