Kuala Lumpur, Sep 18 - Former Malaysian prime minister Mahathir Mohamad, in a fresh broadside against Malaysian Indian Congress (MIC) president S. Samy Vellu, Friday called him 'a liability' and demanded that he step down.

Mahathir criticised Vellu for the second time in a week, saying that his leadership of the MIC 'has failed', reported NST Online, the website of the New Straits Times.

Vellu, 74, who has been MIC president since 1979, was re-elected for the ninth time some weeks ago. His term lasts till 2012.

The MIC, which has traditionally spoken for Malaysia's nearly two million ethnic Indian community, is a constituent of the ruling coalition Barisan Nasional (BN) since Malaysia became independent in 1957.

Mahathir warned that Vellu 'will become a liability to the BN in the next general election, deue in 2013, because his leadership has failed'.

The BN lost its two-thirds majority in parliament in the general election in March last year and control of five of 13 states, when a bulk of ethnic indians was perceived to have moved away from it.

The MIC was reduced to three seats in parliament and Vellu himself lost his 11th attempt at re-election to parliament.

Mahathir, who ruled Malaysia for two decades, when Vellu had served as a minister under him, said he was worried that the people's support for the Barisan would erode and the coalition would be the 'victim' because Samy Vellu was still leading the MIC.

'Samy Vellu must step down as party president because he must take responsibility for the party's failure in the last general election and for his own loss,' Mahathir said in an interview with Bernama, the official news agency.

'If we look at other countries, whenever a leader fails, he resigns. In Japan he commits harakiri. We're not asking him (Samy Vellu) to commit harakiri. You (Samy Vellu) have failed to lead the MIC until you yourself lost,' he said.

Mahathir had said in an interview on the eve of the MIC's general assembly last week that Vellu had 'stayed too long'.