Australia's Special Broadcasting Station (SBS) has denied that its reporters met and plotted with Malaysian government and press representatives to destroy the political career of jailed former deputy premier Anwar Ibrahim.

Anwar's wife, Dr Wan Azizah Wan Ismail, had named two figures as allegedly conspiring against him following the claims made in SBS' Dateline report last Wednesday. It investigated Malaysia's purported role as a financial hub for terrorist organisations.

Among other matters, the report alleged a connection between Anwar and terrorism by virtue of his being a board member of the US-based International Institute of Islamic Thought (IIIT), which it described as "a body accused of funding (Palestinian group) Islamic Jihad".

(Islamic Jihad has often claimed responsibility for suicide bombings in West Bank and Gaza, acts which it says are necessary in the bid to end Israeli occupation of the territories.)

'No contact'

Dateline executive producer Mike Carey said in a statement today that its reporters Ginny Stein and Ganesh Sahathevan had neither "met nor had any contact whatsoever with the people with whom they are accused of plotting, in the course of preparing and presenting the story".

"The story was inspired solely from the work done by Ms Stein and the researcher, based on material that is in the public domain," he said.

He also dismissed suggestions that Dateline was paid for its report by groups associated with new premier Abdullah Ahmad Badawi as "grotesque lies".

Anwar's lawyers have since announced that a lawsuit will be filed against SBS, Bernama and three local dailies - New Straits Times (NST), Berita Harian (BH) and The Star - which publicised the report.

IIIT vice-president Dr Jamal Barzjini said the institution - which has denied any involvement with terror groups - will consider suing SBS only if other avenues fail.