Malaysia has asked civil servants with more than one wife to declare their marriages to prevent disputes over pensions if they die, a report said today.

A spokeswoman for Malaysia's Public Service Department (PSD) said there had been cases of "long-standing conflicts" among widows over the rights to their husbands' pension payments.

"They are encouraged to make the declaration to their respective heads of department," the New Straits Times quoted Hasniah Rashid as saying.

"If anything happens to them, we know who to get in touch with and the right amount of pension to be paid to the wives," she said.

Muslim men in Malaysia are allowed up to four wives. Activists and women's groups say polygamy is cruel and has deviated from its original purpose in Islam, which was to protect widows and orphans.

Hasniah said the department had been forced to revise pension payments to spouses after the sudden appearance of a second or third wife also demanding their husband's pension.

Malaysia's civil service union, Cuepacs, welcomed the call, saying it was a waste of the PSD's time to sort out payment revisions.

"If they want to marry again and again, but they don't pose any problem to the PSD or civil service, then it should be okay," the paper quoted Cuepacs president Omar Osman as saying.

"But the problem is those who take another wife and create a lot of problems for others," he said.