As ex-deputy prime minister Anwar Ibrahim grimaces in pain in prison, his daughter Nurul Izzah is in the United States lobbying for support to have him travel to Germany for critical back surgery.

The determined 23-year-old Nurul has met officials at the White House, the State Department and Congress as well as human rights groups, asking them to prod the Malaysian government to allow Anwar to seek treatment abroad.

Anwar, regarded as a political prisoner by the United States and "prisoner of conscience" by rights group Amnesty International, was rushed to hospital from prison this month due to complications from a damaged spinal disc which he said was caused by a police beating after his arrest in 1998.

"I'm not here to politicise or be confrontational about my father's problem but the fact is his life is at stake," Nurul told AFP. "He is really in a lot of pain and so weak, it is so heartbreaking seeing him."

The US authorities raised the Anwar issue when Malaysian Prime Minister Abdullah Badawi made his first visit to Washington this week after taking over from Dr Mahathir Mohamad in November, a diplomatic source said.

Anwar's family met Pak Lah

Nurul said she and her family met Abdullah at his office before their trip to the US capital to highlight Anwar's plight but that the prime minister only assured them that he would ensure Anwar got the best local treatment possible.

"We appealed to him to allow my father to go to Munich, even with conditions attached, and that that will be a totally humanitarian gesture on his part," said Nurul, here to attend the upcoming Democratic party convention in Boston.

The Malaysian government has said that local doctors were equally competent in performing the surgery but Anwar has refused and been insisting since 2000, when the problem was first diagnosed, that this be handled by German experts.

"It's not just a question of giving the best medical treatment locally but it must be recognised that my father has a choice of medical doctor and the type of surgery. You want something with the highest percentage of success," Nurul said.

Anwar's family has warned that his back injury could leave him paralysed if it was not attended soon.

The charismatic Anwar was once heir apparent to then premier Mahathir but fell out of favour and was sacked in 1998 and later jailed on charges he says were trumped up to prevent him from making a challenge for the premiership.

Anwar has already spent more than five years in jail, having completed a sentence for corruption and begun serving a nine-year term for sodomy, a criminal offense in predominantly-Muslim Malaysia.

The conduct of the corruption and sodomy trial was widely condemned internationally.

Youngest invitee

Amnesty International said it was "extremely concerned" about Anwar's health and urged the Malaysian government to grant him immediate access to medical care of his choice.

T Kumar, Amnesty's Washington-based advocacy director for Asia and Pacific, charged that the Malaysian government practised "double standards" by wanting to send medical teams to Iraq while ignoring Anwar's plea for medical care of his choice.

"The Malaysian government and Prime Minister Badawi will be held responsible for any damage to Anwar's health," he said. The international community will not sit by and watch the way Anwar is treated."

Kumar said it "is not unreasonable for any patient to request medical treatment of their choice."

Some US legislators are expected to highlight Anwar's plight during Senate confirmation hearings for the new US ambassador to Malaysia, sources said.

Nurul, who wants to follow in her father's footsteps as a politician after graduating with an engineering degree in September, said she would strive to highlight her father's plight at the Democratic party convention July 26 to 29.

She is probably the youngest invitee among 500 foreigners, mostly ambassadors and political leaders at the convention, said John Malott, a former US envoy to Malaysia.

"It will be a wonderful opportunity for her," he said. "Here is a young woman who believes in democracy passionately and wants to see political space created in her own country so that everyone has the right to express their views."