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KUALA LUMPUR, Friday (Reuters) Glowing praise and diplomatic silence marked the retirement yesterday of Malaysia's veteran Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad after an international controversy over his comments about Jews.

The 78-year-old leader of the Muslim Southeast Asian nation spent much of his political career rubbing Western governments the wrong way, while becoming a respected spokesman within the Islamic and developing worlds.

But a speech to an Islamic summit two weeks before stepping down, in which he talked of Jewish domination of the world, raised a storm of protest from the United States, Western Europe, Australia and, of course, Israel.

After attending Friday prayers with his successor, Deputy Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, Mahathir went to the king's palace for a handover ceremony that ended his 22-year rule.

Western governments had little to say on a historic day for Malaysia.

"The embassy has not received any message from the White House," said a US embassy official in Kuala Lumpur, adding that many of the mission's staff were more focused on Halloween festivities than Mahathir's last day in office.

The reaction from Australia, which Mahathir has described as "some sort of transplant from another region", was also muted.

"I don't have any comments to make except to re-emphasise the fact the links between Australia and Malaysia are very long, they are very deep," Australian Prime Minister John Howard, who has refused to react to Mahathir's attacks on Australia in recent years, told a Melbourne radio station.

Malaysia's former colonial power Britain, which experienced Mahathir's combative nature when he launched a "Buy British Last" campaign in the 1980s, stuck to diplomatic protocol.

"A message of goodwill is being sent to Abdullah Badawi. It is normal practice to send one to the incoming leader," a senior official at the British High Commission in Kuala Lumpur said.

But Mahathir received warm praise from Thai President Thaksin Shinawatra, who many believe will take a leading role in the Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN) after the departure of the veteran Malaysian leader.

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