KUALA LUMPUR, April 2 — In a confusing turn of events today, Minister Datuk Seri Shahidan Kassim denied verbally agreeing to a special briefing for Pakatan Rakyat (PR) lawmakers next week on the missing Malaysia Airlines flight MH370.

The minister in the Prime Minister’s Department related that he was approached by DAP’s Lim Kit Siang with the request just as he stepped out of the Dewan Rakyat.

“I never said I agreed,” Shahidan told reporters at Parliament here.

He said the government was willing to arrange a briefing for the opposition lawmakers, but insisted they make a formal request.

“I’ve said it before, they must write a letter. We can do the briefing for them, not a problem,” the Arau MP said.

Lim, who is DAP’s parliamentary leader, had told a news conference just hours earlier that Shahidan had promised a briefing next week, which will be conducted either by Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak or acting Transport Minister Datuk Seri Hishammuddin Hussein.

But Shahidan also denied he had given his word to that arrangement.

“I have to ask them first. We haven’t seen their schedule. I cannot make the decisions for them,” said the minister in charge of parliamentary affairs.

Both Shahidan and Lim have been sparring verbally over the exclusion of PR MPs in meetings on the missing jumbo jet since yesterday.

Flight MH370, carrying 239 people on board, disappeared from civilian radars shortly after departing the Kuala Lumpur International Airport for Beijing on March 8.

Military radars and satellites had picked up the Boeing 777’s signal after that, which enabled investigators to plot an erratic flight path that ended several hours later over the Indian Ocean.

A multi-nation search for the missing plane is taking place in the southern waters off West Australia after several objects were spotted there.

The search is now into its 26th day.