(AFP) The wife of Filipino Muslim rebel leader Nur Misuari is expected to meet her detained husband in Malaysia late today, an associate said.

"A policewoman will pick up Tarhata Misuari and their three children at 0830 GMT from their hotel," Elly Pamatong, a US-based lawyer who claims to represent Misuari, told AFP .

"The police are making an arrangement for a reunion."

Police officials said they were unaware of the meeting.

"Police are not aware of this development," a spokesman at Bukit Aman police headquaters said.

Yesterday Tarhata, 27, said she feared her husband may have died while being held by Malaysian authorities.

"I have not heard from him since the middle of last month. I want to make sure he is still alive," Tarhata, holding back tears and embracing their three children, told AFP from a hotel in Kuala Lumpur.

"It is possible he may be dead and that is why they are not letting anyone meet him."

Good health

Foreign Minister Syed Hamid Albar assured her Misuari was in good health.

"Our assurance is that Misuari is not being ill-treated nor is he placed in a situation that jeopardises his personal well-being," Syed Hamid was quoted as saying by Bernama news agency.

The minister said there should not be any problem for Misuari's family to meet the Muslim rebel and that they should get in touch with the foreign ministry or the police to make the arrangements.

Misuari, 60, was arrested on November 24 off an island in Sabah after launching a short-lived rebellion in the southern Philippine island of Jolo.

The failed uprising was a futile attempt to derail elections that ended his five-year hold on the governorship of a Muslim self-rule region.

Philippine President Gloria Arroyo last week rejected an appeal from the Organisation of Islamic Conference (OIC) for Misuari to be given sanctuary in a third country and instead vowed to put him on trial for rebellion.

Misuari is the former leader of the Muslim separatist group, the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF), which is recognized by the world Islamic body.

Malaysia also provided sanctuary to the MNLF, which pushed for an independent Muslim homeland in the predominantly Catholic Philippines, in the 1970s and 80s.