Malaysian former deputy premier Anwar Ibrahim said Thursday that anti-graft officials have backed off a threat to jail him for not surrendering a video allegedly showing judicial corruption.

Anwar unleashed a furore in September when he released an eight-minute video clip in which a well-connected lawyer purportedly tells a top judge over the telephone that he would push his name forward for a senior appointment.

The Anti-Corruption Agency (ACA) this week ordered Anwar to supply an extended version of the clip by Thursday, or face arrest and a jail sentence of up to two years, and made arrangements to collect it from his office.

Anwar refused, saying the extended version would disclose the identity of the whistleblower before their safety and immunity from legal action had been guaranteed.

"The Anti-Corruption Agency officials contacted me early Thursday to cancel the appointment until further notice. The government's attempt to intimidate me has failed," Anwar told reporters.

"I don't understand why they did not turn up," he said, holding out a flash drive that he said contained the video clip, but declining to specify which version.

As some 100 supporters who had gathered at Anwar's offices to witness the looming showdown chanted "Reformasi" -- the battle cry for reform and change -- he said he would not be cowed by government intimidation.

"It is clear to me that the issuance of the notice was politically motivated in a futile attempt to create a basis for a potential prosecution," he said.

Anwar was heir apparent to former premier Mahathir Mohamad until his sacking in 1998, when he was hit with sodomy and corruption charges that landed him in jail for six years.

The sodomy conviction was overturned but the corruption verdict stands, barring him from standing for public office until April 2008.

He is now an adviser to Keadilan, or the People's Justice Party, which is formally led by his wife.