Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi has called for an Islamic "fatwa" declaring drug abuse to be sinful, the official Bernama news agency reported today.

Abdullah said it was appropriate for the National Fatwa Council to make such a ruling as "if it is declared sinful, it becomes something that should be avoided and there will be repentance".

The use of alcohol and other intoxicants by Muslims is outlawed by the Koran, but Muslim-majority Malaysia is wrestling with a growing drug problem.

Remote island

During a recent debate in parliament a government legislator suggested that the death sentence for drug trafficking was not working and that addicts should be exiled to a remote island and supplied with drugs by the government.

Malaysia has executed 229 people convicted of drug trafficking in the past 30 years, parliament was told.

Abdullah, who was speaking to reporters after launching a community-based programme to help the handicapped, said in his speech that drug abuse would not only bring destruction to the addicts but would also have adverse effects on the family and community.