With less than 24 hours before the sodomy trial resumes tomorrow morning, jailed former deputy prime minister Anwar Ibrahim has still not made a decision on whether he should proceed with or abandon the trial altogether.

One of his lawyers, Sankaran Nair, told malaysiakini today that the decision would only be made tomorrow morning when the defence team meets at the courthouse before the trial, adjourned last Friday, resumes.

Anwar's lawyers met him at the Sungai Buloh prison yesterday but were unable to get final instructions on what to do next.

Sankaran added that they (defence lawyers) will meet Anwar at the prison again this afternoon to further discuss the matter.

"We have also not made any decisions on which witness to call in next. We will decide when the lawyers meet at the courthouse tomorrow morning," Sankaran said when contacted this afternoon.

Anwar's lawyers had last Friday requested that the trial be postponed to this Wednesday as Anwar had to reconsider his decision to abandon the trial after High Court judge Arifin Jaka ruled out an appearance by Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamed as a witness.

Arifin came to the conclusion that there was not "an iota of evidence" by any witnesses so far to show that the prime minister is involved in a political conspiracy to topple Anwar.

Defense counsel Christopher Fernando later told the judge that his client's immediate reaction (after the judgement) was to abandon the trial as he (Anwar) saw his chances of succeeding in the trial were next to zero.

The defence had last Wednesday told the court that the rest of their witnesses, including Finance Minister Daim Zainuddin, Deputy Education Minister Aziz Shamsuddin, former consumer affairs minister Megat Junid Megat Ayob and his wife Ziela Jalil would only be called to the witness box if Mahathir was allowed to testify in the trial.

Sankaran however told malaysiakini that Megat will be called in to testify, should Anwar decide to proceed with the trial.

Megat had on March 27 made a statutory declaration that he does not believe in any of the sexual allegations made by star prosecution witness Ummi Hafilda Ali in her letters to the prime minister.

The former minister said in his statement that he had known Anwar for more than 30 years and had never heard of any sexual misconduct involving women and any homosexual activity or sodomy.

He added that Aziz Shamsuddin, Mahathir's former political secretary, was never "ngam" (Cantonese for ''friendly') with Anwar.

Megat, however, subsequently made some changes to his sworn statement, stating that he held his Anwar-was-innocent view until Sept 1, 1998, the day before Anwar was sacked from power. The following day, Anwar was expelled from the ruling party, Umno.

Anwar has argued that Megat's evidence will expose the political conspiracy to topple him from power.

The one-time heir apparent to the prime minister post, currently serving a six-year jail term for corruption, is on trial for sodomy and sexual misconduct which is punishable by up to 20 years in jail.

He and Sukma are charged with sodomising his wife's former driver Azizan Abu Bakar at Sukma's apartment in Tivolli Villas, Bangsar on "one night at 7.45pm, between January and March, 1993".

Anwar has repeatedly denied all charges and said they were fabricated by political rivals to end his political career because he intended to expose corruption and was seen as a political threat to the prime minister.