KUALA LUMPUR, MALAYSIA: The Government is not planning to announce the new fuel prices before polling day for the Permatang Pauh by-election.

Prime Minister Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi said the Government would stick to its decision to announce the new prices on Aug 31, to be enforced on Sept 1.

He was asked if the Government would announce the new prices before polling day as pre-empted by certain quarters.

Abdullah said the pump prices would hopefully be reduced, due to the falling global crude oil price.

On what would happen if the world crude oil price increased, he said the pump prices would not go up from the current RM2.70 per liter for petrol and RM2.58 per liter for diesel.

He said it was too early for him to estimate how much the prices would be reduced.

?Hopefully, the current trend will not change and crude oil price will not go up.

?If I give any figure now and the price goes up, what I say now will no longer hold and people will say I am lying,? he said after chairing the National Water Resource Council meeting in Parliament yesterday.

On Proton, Abdullah said his earlier statement that the Government would leave it to Proton management to weigh any proposal for foreign partnership was in terms of technical decisions.

He agreed that at the end of the day it was Proton shareholders who would make the final decision on foreign partnership for the national carmaker.

To a question, he said Proton was not in talks with any company for foreign partnership.

At another function, Abdullah assured Malaysians of Siamese descent that they would be represented in the Dewan Negara after their representative Senator Siw Chun Eam ends her tenure this year.

"This has always, and will continue to be, the norm," he said at a dinner organised by the Siamese Association of Malaysia.

"The Siamese have never caused any kacau (problems) and they are very responsible people who do not cause any racial tensions.

"The government appreciates this very much, and I have constantly reviewed issues brought up by them and forwarded it to the relevant ministries," he said.