Major bookstores in the country have stripped their shelves of a book on the al-Qaeda terror network which has outraged the government, but the author argued today that he had been unjustly accused.

The government says the book, Inside Al-Qaeda: Global Network of Terror by Sri Lankan academic Rohan Gunaratna, was the source of a United Nations document allegedly linking the ruling coalition with Osama bin Laden's terrorist organisation.

Gunaratna told AFP that he had not seen the UN report but insisted he made no such alllegation in his book and urged Malaysia's leaders to read it before making accusations against him.