KUALA LUMPUR - Malaysian opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim on Thursday said a sodomy charge against him should be dropped because it was a "political ploy".

In an interview with AFP, Anwar said false evidence would be introduced during the trial in a bid to put him in jail and end his political career.

"The worst case scenario is to deny me bail and have a quick conviction," he told AFP.

Anwar, 61, has consistently rejected the allegations levelled by a 23-year-old former aide - the same charge that saw him jailed a decade ago - as a government conspiracy to derail his plan to topple the ruling coalition.

Sodomy, even between consenting adults, is illegal in this conservative and predominantly Muslim nation and carries a penalty of 20 years imprisonment.

The opposition leader is currently out on a 20,000 ringgit bail (S$8,256) pending his trial, but supporters have expressed fears that his bail might be revoked during the trial.

On Wednesday Anwar applied to the court to strike out the sodomy charges, on the grounds that two medical examinations of his accuser had found no signs of sodomy.

"You can't proceed with the sodomy case when it is quite clear by the team of doctors... the medical experts that there is no trace of sodomy, so why do they proceed, except it is going to become a political ploy," he said.

Anwar, a former deputy prime minister, was sacked in 1998 and jailed for sodomy and corruption.

In 2004 Malaysia's highest court overturned the sodomy conviction, allowing Anwar to go free after six years in jail and paving the way for his return to politics.

Under Anwar's leadership, the opposition last year dealt the ruling Barisan Nasional coalition its worst electoral setback yet but fell short of the numbers needed to form a new government.

Anwar also won a landslide victory in a by-election last August that allowed him to return to parliament, but he has so far failed in his bid to topple the federal government after key political defections he had hoped for did not materialise.