Malaysia will shelve three China-backed projects worth a total of US$22 billion until the debt-laden Southeast Asian nation can afford to pay for them, Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad said Tuesday during a visit to Beijing.The projects include a railway connecting Malaysia's east coast to southern Thailand and Kuala Lumpur, and two gas pipelines."I explained to (the Chinese leaders) why we can't have the ECRL (East Coast Rail Link)," Mahathir told Malaysian reporters at th