(AFP) Ministers have agreed to join civil servants, undergraduates and university lecturers in signing a pledge of loyalty to the government, a minister said today.

All ministers agreed to sign the "Akujanji" (I Pledge) agreement after Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad raised the issue during the weekly cabinet meeting, said Rural Development Minister Azmi Khalid.

However, he said the ministers were not told when they would be made to sign the agreement.

"The question of when the cabinet members will sign the pledge will be left to the administration," he was quoted as saying by the official Bernama news agency.

Mahathir said Monday the agreement on good conduct was made compulsory as part of efforts to improve the administration and ensure that government employees were committed to carrying out their jobs.

It was announced last week that all 200,000 undergraduates at public universities, along with staff and lecturers, would also be required to sign when the new academic session begins in May.

To heed orders

The pledge, among other things, requires the signatories to be loyal to the King, government and university and to heed orders, officials said.

Mahathir has said the signing of the pledge was to check "poisoning of the minds" of students so they "stick to the original purpose of entering universities to gain knowledge and not to indulge in anti-government activities".

In October last year, 61 university lecturers allegedly engaged in anti-government activities were sacked, transferred or given warnings.