Jailed former deputy prime minister Anwar Ibrahim has appealed to the chief justice to fix an early date for his sodomy appeal decision so that he can undergo back surgery, his lawyer said today.

Sankara Nair told AFP Anwar would have to decide "within weeks" to undergo surgery but the government has refused to allow the former heir apparent to ex-premier Mahathir Mohamad to have it done in Germany.

Nair said he met Anwar in hospital late Wednesday, adding that the ex-deputy premier was "in great pain and he is really down." Anwar was lying in bed in a single room under tight security, he said.

Nair said local doctors have said Anwar needed to have an operation within weeks but that the former deputy prime minister remained determined to have it done in Germany.

The country's top court on Tuesday had postponed indefinitely its verdict on a sodomy appeal by Anwar, who has been hospitalised since last week.

Nair said the Federal court did not set a new date and no reasons were given for the decision.

Aug 10 hearing

Meanwhile, the Federal Court has fixed August 10 to announce Anwar's corruption review, he said.

Nair said the special hearing by a five-man bench, rare in Malaysia's legal system, is Anwar's final attempt to clear his name even though he had already served time in prison for the offence.

Anwar was rushed to hospital from prison last Tuesday due to complications from a damaged spinal disc which he said was caused by a police beating after his arrest in 1998.

Mahathir sacked his deputy in 1998 and Anwar was later jailed on charges he says were trumped up to prevent him from making a challenge for the premiership.

He has spent more than five years in jail, having completed a sentence for corruption and begun serving a nine-year term for sodomy.

Anwar is considered a political prisoner by human rights groups and the United States. The conduct of the corruption and sodomy trial was widely condemned internationally.