An international human rights group today urged the leaders of the United States, France and Britain to press visiting Malaysian Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi to end detention without trial.

The US-based Human Rights Watch said that since the Sept 11 terrorist attacks "the US and other Western governments turned a blind eye to Malaysias abuses" under the feared Internal Security Act (ISA).

Abdullah held talks with US President George W Bush in Washington on Monday and goes on to meet French President Jacques Chirac on Wednesday and British Prime Minister Tony Blair on Friday.

Human Rights Watch said the US government, "formerly a vocal critic" of Malaysia's use of detention without trial, now praised the country for its support in the so-called "war on terror."

Washington's silence on detentions "demonstrates a reluctance to criticize practices similar to those used by the United States," the statement said, referring to terror suspects held at Guantanamo Bay and the Abu Ghraib prison torture scandal in Iraq.

Humiliating interrogations

Malaysia is holding more than 90 alleged Islamic militants without trial, some of whom have charged that they have been physically abused and subjected to sexually humiliating interrogations.

Human Rights Watch acknowledged that the government "has recently taken some steps to respond to criticism of its treatment of terror suspects".

It had allowed journalists to tour the Kamunting detention centre and announced that the Malaysian National Human Rights Commission would investigate the police remand centers where most of the serious abuses alleged by detainees took place.