On the 14th day of the trial Amir Junus, a former Deputy Chief of Police Intelligence, said Mr Anwar did not consider the original retraction letters strong enough and forced him to edit them himself.

Mr Anwar is charged with abuse of office - using his position to cover up claims of sexual misconduct made by his driver, Azizan Abu Bakar, and a female acquaintance, Ummi Hafilda Ali.

Mr Amir said the former deputy prime minister had ordered his department to obtain confession letters that were "more committed, convincing and firm in denying and retracting all their allegations."

Statement of denial

Anwar's trial has sparked unprecedented anti-government protests

He said Mr Anwar pressed him to add further details that would clearly show he was innocent of sexual misconduct.

"He said words like 'deny' must be included in at least one paragraph and Azizan must say that he never wrote the sworn statement," Mr Amir said.

Earlier the resumption of the trial that has gripped Malaysia was delayed when lead prosecutor, Abdul Gani Patail, was subpoenaed to testify in the trial of Mr Anwar's former tennis partner, Nallakarruppan Solaimalai.

Sexual liaisons

Mr Nallakarruppan, who is charged with illegal possession of ammunition and faces the death penalty if convicted, was arrested during police investigations into allegations that he helped secure sexual liaisons for the former deputy prime minister - Mr Anwar was dismissed from office shortly afterwards.

Security remains tight around the Kuala Lumpur court house

But after one of Mr Nallakarruppan's lawyers withdrew from the case earlier this week to take the stand as a defence witness, the judge ordered his trial postponed until January, delaying Mr Abdul Gani's testimony and allowing Mr Anwar's trial to continue.

Mr Anwar is currently on trial of four charges of corruption, although he has also been charged with five counts of sexual misconduct and one more of abuse of office.

He denies them all and says they are part of a political conspiracy intended to destroy his political career.

Until his dismissal on 2 September, he was regarded as the favoured successor to Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad.