Anwar said his Sept. 16 "plan is still on," but refused to give details.

"Clearly the prime minister has lost the mandate of the country," he said, adding that his fight is not just against Abdullah but the entire ruling party "clique and their cronies who have amassed billions."

Besides the challenge from Anwar, Prime Minister Abdullah is also facing internal opposition.

Veteran government lawmaker Razaleigh Hamzah, who wants to challenge Abdullah for the leadership of their United Malays National Organization party, said Anwar's victory meant that "what scraps of credibility (Abdullah) had left" were gone.

Former Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad also said, "Abdullah must take responsibility and resign now."

His lawmaker son Mukhriz Mahathir also said that with Anwar in Parliament, "we cannot afford to have a weak leadership because it could lead to our downfall."

Abdullah rejected the calls. "I believe we can still continue the government," Abdullah was quoted as saying by the Bernama national news agency.

Abdullah's party has been the main pillar of the National Front coalition that has ruled Malaysia uninterrupted since independence from Britain in 1957. And since 1969, it held a two-thirds majority in Parliament.

But in the March 8 general elections, the coalition returned to power with a simple majority of 140 seats in the 222-member house.

Anwar's People's Alliance coalition increased its strength from 19 to 82 seats and needs 30 more to form a government.

His re-entry into Parliament completed his political rehabilitation. Anwar was fired by Mahathir as deputy prime minister in 1998 and jailed for six years, convicted of corruption and sodomizing his family driver. That sodomy conviction, which he said was politically motivated, was overturned by Malaysia's top court in 2004.

The corruption conviction, which carried a ban on holding political office until April 2008, prevented him from contesting in the March elections.

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