Kuala Lumpur (AsiaNews/Scmp) - Moderate Muslims and religious minorities have applauded Prime Minister Abdullah Badawi after he ruled in their favour on two issues which they said had threatened the nation's secular foundations.

He decided yesterday to freeze the implementation of a controversial Islamic family law, passed in parliament last month, and also promised to review a section of the constitution which barred civil courts from interfering in matters of sharia law.

Both issues had pitted moderates against the conservative administrators of Islamic sharia law.

"This is the news we have been waiting and praying for," said Zainah Anwar, executive director of Sisters in Islam, the feminist movement that led the protest against the new family law. The law would have allowed Muslim men to practise polygamy without restrictions, divorce their wives at will, claim their properties and even freeze their bank accounts.

The law will be completely reviewed, said Parliamentary Affairs Minister Nazri Aziz, adding that Mr Abdullah was "very concerned that there is so much unhappiness over the bill". Moderate Muslims welcomed the review but were worried that Mr Abdullah - who has been criticised before for his indecisiveness - might give in to Muslim clerics at a later stage.

Mr Abdullah also ordered a separate review of the constitution after a superior court judge ruled last month he had no jurisdiction over a case in which a sharia court allowed the body of a famous mountaineer to be given a Muslim burial - despite the protests of his Hindu wife who said he had never converted to Islam.

The ruling shocked non-Muslims and sparked protests from normally conservative Hindu, Christian and Buddhist leaders.

Non-Muslim religious leaders welcomed yesterday's announcement, saying it had raised their confidence in the government after the judiciary had let them down. The Conference of Bishops of Malaysia urged Mr Abdullah "to restore sovereign power to the civil court to rule in cases involving non-Muslims in Islamic affairs".