Major bookstores in the country have stripped their shelves of a book on the al-Qaeda terror network which has outraged the government, but the author argued today that he had been unjustly accused.

The government says the book, Inside Al-Qaeda: Global Network of Terror by Sri Lankan academic Rohan Gunaratna, was the source of a United Nations document allegedly linking the ruling coalition with Osama bin Laden's terrorist organisation.

Gunaratna told AFP that he had not seen the UN report but insisted he made no such alllegation in his book and urged Malaysia's leaders to read it before making accusations against him.

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"Responsible politicians, before they shoot, should study the problem," he told AFP in a telephone interview from Singapore, where he is an analyst with the Institute of Defence and Strategic Studies.

Gunaratna said he had written to Deputy Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, who made the allegation, and had sent him a copy of the book.

Abdullah said the UN report depicted Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad's ruling National Front as having "ideological and political links" to the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) in the Philippines, which has direct links to al-Qaeda.

Abdullah described the report as "totally untruthful and offensive" and demanded its retraction.

Major booksellers in this mainly Muslim southeast Asian nation admitted today that they had taken the book off their shelves when the row first erupted last last week, but a government spokesman said no official ban had been imposed.

Home ministry officials said they were "studying the contents of the book". AFP

Read malaysiakini columnist Farish A Noor's review of Inside al-Qaeda: Global Network of Terror.