(AFP) An international news magazine expressed dismay today over what it said were repeated delays by Malaysia in releasing issues since March.

Peter Brack, president of Asiaweek, said he had yet to receive any explanation from the home ministry over the delays.

"I met up with the minister last month to ask for the reason for the delay but I have not yet received any correspondence from the ministry," Brack told AFP by telephone from Asiaweek's Hong Kong offices.

He said issues have generally been delayed for about two weeks since government censors first held up the sales of Asiaweek and the Far Eastern Economic Review in March.

Asiaweek's March 2 issue carried a report of links between unidentified Malaysian businessmen and Islamic separatists in the southern Philippines.

Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad has for years fiercely criticised the Western media for alleged bias and inaccurate reporting.

On Feb 1 Mahathir accused Asiaweek of using a cover photograph of him which deliberately made him look like "an idiot".

Three days later the government announced it would set up a committee to handle what it called inaccurate reports in the foreign media.

Foreign publications inspected

Asiaweek sells more than 25,000 copies in Malaysia, its largest sales volume in any country.

"In a lot of our issues, we have stories related to Malaysia due to the nature of our magazine but some of the delayed issues don't have anything to do with Malaysia," Brack said.

Malaysia's Control of Publications and Film Division, part of the Home Affairs Ministry, routinely inspects imported news magazines.

But local distributors say they believe the recent action was the first time for many years that the department had delayed sales.

The government's move came under fierce criticism from an international press freedom group in March.

Asia's representative for the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists, Lin Neumann, said it was "very troubling" if the government was trying to bar the distribution of foreign publications.

Rohaizad Abdul Rahim, press secretary to Deputy Premier and Home Affairs Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, told AFP today there was no government policy of censoring foreign news magazines.

"The approval of releasing magazines is done by the publications control unit and has nothing to do with the ministry," he said.

Officials at the censorship board could not be reached for comment.