In an interview with the Sunday Times, Lee did not rule out elections this year and, reflecting on his time in office, cited the December 2004 tsunami in Asia and his decision to allow casinos as the biggest issues he had faced.

Lee, who inherited the job at the age of 52 in August last year when Goh stepped down under Singapore's closely-managed system of political succession, is widely expected to seek at least two five-year elected terms of his own.

He has until June 2007 to call for parliamentary elections but has repeatedly indicated he wants his own mandate soon.

Goh had taken over from Lee's father, independence leader Lee Kuan Yew, in a similar fashion in late 1990, and won his own mandate through an election the following year.

The two former leaders still sit in the cabinet as the prime minister's top advisers. Goh, 64, serves as senior minister while the elder Lee, 82, sports the custom-made title minister mentor.

In the newspaper interview, the premier said that "not to tap their experience, their political strength and their contributions would be foolish" and stressed that Singapore does not operate like other countries.

Asked what he was looking forward to in his second year, Lee said: "Preparing for the elections. Continuing to strengthen ourselves."

He added that "We are still interviewing people".

The People's Action Party (PAP) has ruled Singapore since it became independent from Malaysia in August 1965. It holds all but two of the 84 elected seats in parliament and got 75 percent of all votes cast in 2001.

"I think it's been a very smooth transition," Lee said of his first year in office, adding that the two "big things" he had to contend with were the regional tsunami crisis and giving the go-ahead for casinos in Singapore.

In a country where opposition leaders have been jailed or bankrupted in defamation suits after challenging the PAP, the casino issue triggered a strong reaction from ordinary Singaporeans who feared large-scale gambling would damage their society.

But Lee maintained when he approved the casinos that Singapore could not give up the opportunity to diversify its economy and boost tourism, saying that otherwise it would be left behind by its neighbors, like Thailand.

"I think, at the end, at least 60, 70 per cent, if we had gone for a poll, would have supported this, which was not the case before we made our pitch," he said.

But even more than the casino issue, Lee felt the tsunami which struck the Indian Ocean region four months after he became prime minister was the biggest issue of his first year in office.

"We were not directly affected, but the psychological impact on Singaporeans was considerable," he said. "People watched it, they were affected, they wanted to help. And when we mounted an operation, there was tremendous support for it."

Singapore mobilized its well-equipped armed forces and civilian volunteers for a massive emergency aid airlift and reconstruction campaign in Indonesia's battered Aceh province, which suffered more than 130,000 deaths. It was also instrumental in organizing an international tsunami donors' conference.

Asked about his health, Lee said it was "OK" and that he has a check-up every six months. He said he exercises every day.

Singapore was shocked in 1992 when both deputy prime ministers at the time, Lee and Ong Teng Cheong, were diagnosed with cancer.

Lee was eventually cleared after a period of treatment and rest while Ong went on to become the country's first elected president in 1993, but he succumbed to cancer in 2002.

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