Lee took over after his predecessor Goh Chok Tong stepped down in August last year

The prime minister, who is also the PAP secretary-general, urged his fellow cadres at the party's twice-yearly convention to help him secure a strong mandate at the next polls, which must be held by June 2007. He spoke to 2000 party cadres in a closed-door meeting, reports said.

"We must be strong nationally and on the ground to win the trust of the voters," Lee, 53, was quoted as saying by the Today newspaper.

"We must win well in the next elections, with a strong mandate to lead Singapore and secure the future for our nation," he said.

The PAP's line-up of new candidates would be "young, diverse and representative" of the multi-racial Southeast Asian state, Lee was quoted as saying in the Straits Times.

The PAP has ruled Singapore for the past 40 years. Lee is the son of Singapore's founding father and first prime minister, Lee Kuan Yew.

Singapore's opposition plays a marginal role in politics, its leaders hounded by lawsuits and their activities curbed by strict laws against protest rallies and lack of access to the mainstream media.

Lee has already been preparing the ground for his first polls as prime minister, having directed his party last year to recruit new potential candidates for the elections.

Lee's announcements on Sunday at the closed-door meeting that his government was considering new schemes to help low-income Singaporeans was another indication the city-state would go to the polls soon, according to opposition politician Steve Chia.

"They have been preparing the ground for the last one year," said Chia, secretary-general of the National Solidarity Party.

The PAP, which has dominated Singapore politics since the island gained self-rule from Britain in 1959, won 82 of the 84 seats in Parliament at the last elections in 2001 with, 75 percent of the vote.

Lee told the Foreign Correspondents Association of Singapore (FCA) last month he did not expect to match the 2001 vote share. Those polls were held after the September 11, 2001 attacks on the United States when there were general worries about security.

"I'm not hoping to have such a situation when I call elections," Lee said at the FCA luncheon.

However, political watchers believe Lee, who was seen by many as an aloof intellectual but has shown his softer side since succeeding Goh, will indeed get the strong mandate he wants.

"I expect him to do very well," Bilveer Singh, a political science lecturer at the National University of Singapore, told AFP.

"He has this image of being stern... he has surprised many people," Singh said.

After succeeding Goh, the former brigadier-general and Cambridge-educated mathematician surprised many in his inaugural policy speech when he unveiled a reformist agenda and charmed many by showing his folksy side.

Lee's father, who ruled the city-state since independence and stepped down in 1990, remains an influential member in his son's cabinet with the custom-made title of minister mentor.


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