"I don't understand all this talk about a general election," the Today newspaper quoted Lee, who remains the third most powerful politician in Singapore with the title of Mentor Minister, as saying on Friday.

"The government has only been in office... three-and-a-half months. What are we talking about?"

Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong, who is Lee's son, took office in August in a carefully managed succession from Goh Chok Tong.

The People's Action Party, which has ruled Singapore since independence in 1965, won 82 of the 84 seats in parliament at the last national elections in Governments can serve six-year terms under Singapore's constitution, meaning the People's Action Party can wait until 2007 before next going to the polls.

Speculation has mounted since the younger Lee assumed power that he was planning to call an early election to seek an endorsement of his leadership.

But the elder Lee said his son needed more than just a few months as prime minister to ensure the People's Action Party was ready to go to the polls.

"It has some work to do to make sure everything is in position, basic policies are implemented, and the people should feel some of the benefits of the basic policies and then go to elections," he said.

Lee, who retains strong influence in government despite maintaining he is just a mentor to the younger generation of leaders, also weighed into the controversial debate over whether Singapore should have a casino.

Although he has previously said he is personally against casinos, Lee gave a cautious and pragmatic endorsement of having one in the city-state.

"Do we want to be part of a modern world with casinos? Maybe with sufficient safeguards to make sure it doesn't eat into work ethics, and does not penetrate our... heartland," the Today newspaper quoted him as saying.

"The people who now go to casinos or gamble at the race course, they'll gamble anyway, they will go abroad. You can identify them by their income.

These fellows can be (casino) members. But those on the borderline don't go in."

Lee was was speaking to reporters on Friday while on an official visit to Thailand.

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