The government today came under mounting international pressure to charge or release six opposition detainees, with 46 members of Denmark's parliament issuing the latest in a series of petitions to the government.

They joined parliamentarians from Britain, Japan and the Netherlands and a group of 40 Islamic scholars who have already pressed Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad over the six men, whose initial two-year detention orders expire in June.

The Internal Security Act (ISA) under which they are held allows detention without trial and the standard two-year detention orders can be renewed indefinitely.