Monday September 8, 2008  8:31 am

By SEAN YOONG

Associated Press Writer

KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia (AP) - Dozens of Malaysian ruling coalition lawmakers traveled abroad together Monday amid jitters about opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim's threat to recruit enough defectors from the government to seize power by next week.

The opposition has accused the National Front coalition of sending its members of Parliament overseas to keep them away from Anwar and to prevent him from enlisting government legislators to join the opposition by Sept. 16 - the date Anwar has vowed to take power.

Tiong King Sing, chairman of the National Front Backbenchers Club, said some 40 lawmakers flew to Taiwan for an agricultural study tour Monday and that around 10 more would join them Tuesday. The trip will stretch through next week, but there was no confirmed date for their return.

Tiong denied that the retreat was timed to thwart Anwar's threat, stressing that ``the credibility of our lawmakers should be regarded with high respect.''

Anwar has indicated the retreat could set back his Sept. 16 target by several days. Opposition leaders noted the National Front legislators were only told about the trip last week, and that the lawmakers' club had never organized such an event before.

Senior opposition legislator Lim Kit Siang said the government lawmakers were ``forced to flee from Malaysia to ensure that they don't take part in any Sept. 16 political changes.''

``There is no doubt that with the daily countdown to Sept. 16, there is an increasing panic in (government) leadership ranks over the degree of cohesion, solidarity and allegiance'' among its legislators, Lim said.

Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi pledged last week to block Anwar's attempt to topple the National Front, which has governed Malaysia for 51 years but suffered its worst electoral result ever in March national polls.

The National Front won 140 seats in the 222-member Parliament, losing its two-thirds majority for the first time since 1969. Anwar's three-party opposition alliance needs to lure at least 30 defectors for the government to collapse.

Anwar, a former deputy premier, won a by-election in northern Malaysia last month that enabled him to re-enter Parliament and to become prime minister if his alliance takes power.