Kuala Lumpur - Malaysia's ruling party decided Friday to postpone its elections amid growing speculations that embattled Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi will resign within months.

Abdullah, who is president of the United Malays National Organization (UMNO), said that the party will hold its elections in March instead of December as scheduled.

Abdullah said this was to "facilitate an early transition," but declined to elaborate. Abdullah has said he is likely to resign before June 2010 and hand power over to his deputy Najib Razak. Traditionally, the UMNO president becomes the prime minister.

The embattled premier has been fighting off calls to step down after he led the ruling National Front coalition to disastrous results in the March 8 general elections.

The Front lost five out of 13 states to the opposition - led by former deputy prime minister Anwar Ibrahim - and failed to secure a two-thirds majority in Parliament for the first time in the country's 51-year history.

Abdullah has been claiming that he wants to quit only after his efforts at reforms in the economy, judiciary and administration bear fruit. However, critics have said little progress has been seen since he became premier in 2003.

Abdullah told reporters Friday that he would announce his decision to contest or not at the party's polls before October 9, when the party's district officials start meeting to nominate candidates for the elections.

"Whether or not I contest, I alone will decide," he was quoted as saying by the official Bernama news agency.

UMNO is the backbone of the National Front, a coalition of 13 parties representing Malaysia's various ethnic groups.

After the March elections, Anwar has claimed he has secured enough government lawmakers to defect and give the three-party opposition alliance a majority in Parliament.

Currently, the opposition holds 82 seats out of 222.

Although Anwar missed a self-imposed deadline of September 16, he has maintained that he has the numbers to seize power from Abdullah and claims to be taking "cautious" steps in his takeover bid to avoid situations of instability in the country. (dpa)