The sodomy trial of jailed deputy prime minister Anwar Ibrahim was adjourned this morning, pending an appeal to the Court of Appeal, to a date yet to be fixed.

"The court has been adjourned until the disposal of the Court of Appeal's decision," said defence counsel Karpal Singh, after emerging from a meeting in judge Arifin Jaka's chamber.

Anwar has filed an appeal against Arifin's ruling on April 21 that Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad need not appear as a witness in his sex trial.

Another defence counsel, Pawancheek Merican, later told reporters that the defence has yet to file the petition of appeal stating the grounds to challenge the ruling.

"We are still waiting for the records from the court. This is a narrow issue whether Dr Mahathir should come or not," Merican said.

Anwar said that the real reason for Arifin's ruling was the Umno general assembly, which is due to meet next weekend.

Meanwhile, Pawancheek added that the defence counsel would also file a notice of appeal to the Federal Court to overturn the Court of Appeal's judgement last Saturday that dismissed Anwar's appeals against both his April 1999 conviction on four corruption charges and six-year jail sentence.

In the current trial, Anwar and his adopted brother Sukma Dermawan are charged with sodomising his wife's former driver Azizan Abu Bakar at Sukma's apartment in Tivolli Villas, Bangsar on "one night at 7.45pm, between January and March, 1993".

The one-time heir apparent to the prime minister post has repeatedly denied all charges and said they were fabricated by political rivals to end his political career.