A Muslim model who was ordered to be caned for drinking beer urged the authorities today to decide what should happen to her four months after her case was halted.

NONEKartika Sari Dewi Shukarno, 32, was sentenced to six strokes by a syariah court in July, the first woman ordered to be caned under Islamic law in Malaysia.

But she won a surprise reprieve in late August when she was detained and then abruptly released by religious officials who had planned to take her to a jail where she was to undergo the thrashing.

The government said the sentence was "too harsh" and could damage Malaysia's reputation.

'Don't leave me in limbo'

"They should declare what they want to do with me, tell me, don't leave me in limbo, at least I would know where am I," Kartika told AFP by telephone from her hometown in Perak.

"My stand is still the same - if they decide they want to cane me, please do it.

"I don't want to pressure them but what they promised is to postpone the caning until after the holy month of Ramadan, which was over in September.

"Even my lawyers don't know how they should help me now," said Kartika, adding that she is now a volunteer at an orphanage in Perak after quitting her job in Singapore at the height of her case to avoid public attention.

Kartika, a part-time model and mother-of-two, has stared down religious authorities by saying she is ready to be caned, refusing to appeal against her sentence, and challenging them to cane her in public.

The religious court itself agreed to review the sentence after the case triggered a public furore, but the appeals panel later upheld the decision and ordered the caning to go ahead.

Abdul Hamid Abdul Rahman, the chief religious judge of Pahang - where Kartika was arrested in a hotel nightclub - told the Star newspaper today that "there is nothing happening" at present.