The prime minister said there might be more negotiations over the project.

“At this moment no final decision has been made. Some decisions were made but now we have to find a better solution.

“We are still negotiating. Give time to both sides to come up with a solution,” he said at a press conference, referring to China and Malaysia.

When asked if Putrajaya would release the feasibility study which would reveal the actual cost of the project, Mahathir said the government was always studying the cost.

“Apparently there are offers by others which will cost the government much less,” he said, adding that the previous administration had valued the project at a high cost and that was something the Pakatan Harapan government needed to “attend to”.

Mahathir went on to say that he would leave it to Finance Minister Lim Guan Eng to announce the decision once “he has completed negotiations”.

Mahathir had said this morning that the project was a burden to the government, and cancelling it might be a better alternative despite the huge compensation it would have to pay.

Earlier, conflicting statements had been made by two of his Cabinet members on the China-led project.

Economic Affairs Minister Mohamed Azmin Ali had said the government had terminated China Communications Construction Group Ltd as the project’s contractor, while Lim had said an official decision had yet to be made.

Asked about the conflicting statements by his ministers, Mahathir said that after getting the true picture, he found that both ministers were right “but (the) timing was wrong”.

He went on to explain that the remark made by the minister who attended the Cabinet meeting was taken out of context in media reports.

“The minister was explaining that there was a need to have good relations with China because they are a good market and a source of foreign direct investment.”