The wife of jailed Anwar Ibrahim said today she hopes US President George W Bush will highlight the plight of the ailing former Malaysian deputy prime minister in a meeting with Prime Minister Ahmad Abdullah Badawi next week.

"I am quite hopeful," opposition lawmaker Wan Azizah Wan Ismail told reporters outside parliament.

Wan Azizah said the US State Department was aware of Anwar's poor health and hoped Washington would influence Kuala Lumpur to allow Anwar to go to Germany for treatment.

Ahmad Badawi Abdullah is set to meet Bush on July 19 in his first trip to the US since becoming Malaysian prime minister last October. Anwar is considered a political prisoner by human rights groups and the United States.

Anwar was rushed to hospital from prison late Tuesday due to complications from a damaged spinal disc, which he says was caused by a police beating after his arrest in 1998.

Overseas surgery ruled out

On Wednesday the government ruled out allowing Anwar to seek treatment abroad for a back injury which his wife said could leave him paralysed.

Wan Azizah angrily denounced Health Minister Chua Soi Lek's remarks yesterday that Anwar, once heir apparent to Mahathir, was not seriously ill.

"Chua has not seen him. I saw him on Wednesday. He is in great pain. He has lost sensitivity in his left leg. He faces delay in urinating," she said.

Wan Azizah said Anwar favoured a back surgery at Clinic Alpha Munich in Germany and remained opposed to surgery in Malaysia.

"The conventional type of surgery in Malaysia is risky and it could lead to other complications," she said.

Wan Azizah said she would appeal to Abdullah to reverse the decision not to allow Anwar to go abroad for treatment.

Chua said Wednesday that in 2000 a panel of medical specialists recommended Anwar undergo surgery to treat his prolapsed disc and Anwar chose an operation offered by a specialist in Germany.

Anwar refused all other forms of treatment offered to him and was discharged in May 2001 with a warning by the doctors that if he did not undergo an operation it would lead to further complications, Chua said.

July 22 decision

Meanwhile, Malaysia's top court, the Federal Court would on July 22 deliver Anwar's alleged sodomy appeal decision, his counsel said.

"We hope Anwar will walk out a free man. In the event the conviction is upheld, we will push for a reduced sentence," said Karpal Singh.

Charismatic and popular Anwar has already spent more than five years in jail, having completed a sentence for corruption and begun serving a nine-year term for sodomy.

Mahathir sacked his deputy in 1998 and Anwar was later jailed on charges he says were trumped up to prevent him from making a challenge for the premiership.

The conduct of the corruption and sodomy trial was widely condemned internationally.