Malaysia has banned an edition of a Hong Kong magazine which ran semi-nude pictures of a pop star as she changed backstage at a concert in Genting Highlands, a report said today.

The secretly photographed pictures of Gillian Chung - one half of the chart-topping duo 'Twins' - have caused a furore in Hong Kong, where celebrity and political heavyweights joined protests calling for curbs on the media.

Malaysia's Deputy Internal Security Minister Fu Ah Kiow said the government had banned the offending issue of Easy Finder and was considering whether to completely ban the magazine in the future.

Confiscate the mags

"We are taking stern action to ensure that volume 761 of the magazine does not enter our market and we will confiscate any that travellers try to bring into the country," he said, according to the Star newspaper.

Fu said that about 1,300 copies of the magazine were sold in Malaysia each week.

The photographs, which showed Chung's back naked except for her bra straps as she changed costumes, were taken without her consent at a concert in Genting Highlands.