Malaysia's premier called on Wednesday for fresh elections that he is certain to win, kicking off a campaign likely to be overshadowed by racial issues and religious tension in the southeast Asian nation.

Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi said he had received consent from the country's king to dissolve parliament, effective Wednesday, and call fresh elections.

'We hope to get a big majority, at least two thirds, God willing,' Abdullah told a news conference at his imposing green-domed office in Malaysia's administrative capital.

While the outcome of the election is a foregone conclusion, the timing could be a gamble due to rising racial and religious tensions and a popular anger over inflation.

Polls had not been due until May 16, 2009, and Abdullah gave no reason for calling them early, but analysts had expected him to seek a fresh mandate before the economy begins to slow and inflation picks up steam.

'They want to get over with the elections before things get worse,' said Ooi Kee Beng, analyst at Singapore's Institute of Southeast Asian Studies.

An opposition leader said it could be an uphill task to deny Abdullah's ruling coalition a two-thirds parliamentary majority, the threshold required for amending the constitution.

'It's going to be tough,' said Lim Guan Eng, leader of the Chinese-based Democratic Action Party. 'For us, even winning one seat is going to be a Herculean task.'    

'As we get closer to election day, Barisan Nasional, because of its very powerful machinery, would be able to ensure a very, very comfortable victory,' political analyst Chandra Muzaffar told Reuters, although he expected that majority to be smaller than in 2004.

While authorities will only announce the poll date on Thursday, insiders suggest it will be held in the first 10 days of March in order to exclude opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim, who is barred from standing for public office until April because of a past criminal record.

'It is going to be a major, major battle ahead,' Anwar told reporters in Hong Kong, but he remained upbeat.

'I would say that we would start the election campaign with enough confidence that for the first time we are going to deny the government two-thirds majority, and we'll push beyond that because right now we are very close to having a simple majority,' he said.

Opposition parties complain that the electorate is gerrymandered in favour of mainly rural Malays, that the pro-government media gives them short shrift and campaigning rules favour the incumbents.

'We, the opposition, almost have to fight this out in the dark,' Nasharuddin Mat Isa, deputy president of the hardline Islamist Parti Islam se-Malaysia, told Reuters.

'This is going to be tough for us, as it's an uneven playing field and when the government has all the advantage in terms of money and resources.'    

In power since 2003, Abdullah is trying to shore up his own popularity, which has been dented by public anger over rising prices, street crime and an influx of cheap foreign labour.

Abdullah, who took over from Mahathir Mohamad, led the coalition to a record victory in 2004 polls on a pledge to clean up government. But he has said a repeat of 2004 was unlikely.

'He knows that he will not be able to resolve inter-ethnic problems in the country and that waiting longer would only cause sentiments to slide away from the coalition even further,' Tian Chua, spokesman for Anwar's Keadilan party, said.

After months of feverish poll speculation, markets took the news in stride, with the benchmark index up less than one percent at 1,428.13 points in the afternoon session. - Reuters