A Muslim cleric who sparked a furor over suggestions women wear chastity belts to thwart "sex maniacs" who commit crimes has dismissed his comments as a joke.

Abu Hassan Din Al-Hafiz said on Friday cases of rape and incest were rampant and that chastity belts would help reduce sex-related crimes.

"Joke only. It was not seriously meant," said Abu Hassan, according to the New Straits Times.

"It's not practical to wear a chastity belt in this day and age. It can't be done," added the cleric who has served as a religious advisor to Malaysia's king and written books on Islamic studies.

In his comments reported Friday in the Star newspaper, he said: "My intention is not to offend women but to safeguard them from sex maniacs."

Elaborating on his idea, he said there would be other positives to donning the belts.

"Husbands could also feel more secure, if you know what I mean," he said, adding chastity belts were worn as recently as the mid-1960s.

Sharp rebuke

The comments sparked a sharp rebuke from Women, Family and Community Development Minister Shahrizat Jalil who said the government was not interested in ideas from the pre-Islamic age of "jahiliyah" or ignorance.

"It is better to have a steel-like iman (faith) rather than wearing the belt. If a person is bent on doing it (rape), he would find a way to do it even if one's whole body is covered with metal," she was quoted in the New Straits Times as saying.

Sharifah Hapsah Syed Hasan Shahbudin, president of the National Council of Women's Organisation, said: "Why don't these people suggest instead that the men wear chastity belts?"

Women's Aid Organisation executive director Ivy Josiah said Abu Hassan's comments gave the impression that "all men are beasts of passion."

Religious leaders in some conservative states have in the past remarked that women often invite rape and sexual assault by wearing revealing clothing and make-up.

They often have to retract their comments after being criticised by women's rights groups and other Islamic bodies in the mainly-Muslim nation.