In an about-turn, the Internal Security Ministry has allowed a Catholic weekly newspaper to continue to print without any condition, after earlier threatening to revoke its licence in a row over the word 'Allah'.

Augustine Julian, secretary of the Catholic Bishops' Conference, said a new licence had been granted to the Herald , which would continue to use 'Allah' in referring to God in its Bahasa Malaysia section of the bulletin.

"The letter to allow the Herald to be printed was hand delivered by internal security officials on Sunday," he said.

"They have allowed us to publish the weekly as usual. All four sections - in English, Malay, Tamil and Chinese - will be published. I suppose if they give us the printing permit we can continue to use the word Allah," he added.

Julian said no reasons were given for the extension but suggested the government would not want to alienate Malaysia's two million Christians ahead of general elections.

In a press statement, Herald editor Father Lawrence Andrew said that the letter from the Internal Security Ministry - which was hand delivered to the newspaper at about 10am today - "places no restriction whatsoever, and includes the permit for all languages, including the Bahasa Malaysia segment".

He said that the newspaper received a letter two weeks ago from the Internal Security Ministry stating that the Herald could not publish its Bahasa Malaysia section from the date of the permit renewal in 2008.

Legal suit

The Herald , a tabloid-sized newspaper, which has a circulation of 12.000 is read by among the country's 850,000 Catholics with articles written in English, Chinese, Tamil and Malay.

Deputy Internal Security Minister Johari Baharum had earlier warned its printing permit, due to expire tomorrow, would not be renewed if it continued using the Malay word for 'Allah', which the government says can only be used by Muslims.

Commentators have sounded alarm over the growing "Islamisation" of the country and the increasing polarisation of the three main ethnic communities, which mix much less than in the past.

The publisher of the Herald and a church group in Sabah have filed a legal suit against the government for banning them from using the word Allah.

"We are in the view that we have the right to use the word Allah, (a right) which ... is now sought to be curtailed," said Herald's Lawrence.

Lawrence said the legal challenge was filed in the High Court on Dec 5 following orders from the government not to use the word Allah, which Muslims use to describe God.

Meanwhile, Bernard Dompok, minister in the Prime Minister's Department, said that he had spoken to Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi over the problems faced by Catholics.

"Only in Malaysia, the Muslims claim exclusive rights to the word Allah. I am confident the Herald's permit will be renewed and it will be allowed to publish in all the four languages," he told AFP .

Lawrence thanked Dompok for his intervention. "We thank the government this gesture of goodwill for renewing Herald's printing permit and restore its right to publish in all languages without conditions."