UN secretary-general Kofi Annan welcomed the Malaysian Federal Court decision releasing ex-deputy prime minister Anwar Ibrahim from prison and expressed the hope that his health would recover soon.

"The secretary-general warmly welcomes the decision of the Federal Court to release Mr Anwar Ibrahim, former deputy prime minister of Malaysia, from jail," Annan's spokesman said in a statement.

"He hopes that Mr Anwar will recover his health soon by receiving long-awaited medical treatment," the spokesman said.

Popular ex-DPM

Anwar was a popular deputy prime minister until he was fired by then-premier Mahathir Mohamad in 1998 and later jailed for a total of 15 years on charges of corruption and sodomy.

He always maintained that the charges were trumped up to prevent him challenging Mahathir for the premiership and the Federal Court, Malaysia's highest, on Thursday overturned his sodomy conviction.

He has already served his sentence for corruption, but the same court will review that conviction on Monday.

Anwar is expected to leave soon to undergo surgery in Germany for a spinal injury he says was caused by a police beating after his arrest.