KUALA LUMPUR, April 3 (AFP) - 13:49 - A US citizen told the Anwar Ibrahim sodomy trial on Monday that a Malaysian diplomat in Washington had offered him a share of 200,000 dollars if he smeared the name of the sacked deputy premier.

Defence lawyers said the evidence of businessman Jamal Abdul Rahman showed that an alleged attempt to fabricate evidence against Anwar extended outside Malaysia.

Anwar says he fell foul of a high-level conspiracy because he threatened to expose corruption and was seen as a political threat to Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad.

Anwar was sacked as deputy premier and finance minister on September 2, 1998 and detained later that month.

He was jailed in April 1999 for six years for corruption -- using his powers to cover up allegations of sexual misconduct. He could face 20 years if convicted of sodomy.

In another development Ng Aik Guan, the lawyer for Deputy Education Minsiter Aziz Shamsuddin, said Aziz was no longer resisting defence attempts to make his testify.

Anwar has named Aziz and Finance Minister Daim Zainuddin as among the main plotters against him.

He also wants to call Mahathir but Judge Arifin Jaka has yet to rule on whether Daim and the premier should be made to give evidence.

Rahman told the court his firm provided limousine services to the Malaysian embassy and visiting VIPs. He drove Anwar every time he visited.

In September 1998, he said, a diplomat called Mustafa Ong asked him to go to New York with him and they left the next day.

During the trip, Rahman said, Ong asked him if Anwar had made any sexual passes at him. "I said, you must be joking.

"He (Ong) said if I say that he (Anwar) made sexual passes at me, we can make some money. I got very upset. He said 'Relax, relax.'

"Then he said 'Why don't you say you brought some girls and boys for him (Anwar)?'"

Asked by Arifin about the purpose of the questions, lead counsel Christopher Fernando replied: "To show the level and intensity of the efforts made to procure fabricated evidence against Anwar.

"This will also show that the fabrication was not confined to Malaysia but attempts were made to get such evidence even in the United States."Rahman said he told Ong to drop the subject but the diplomat tried to persuade him.

"He told me there is a videotape in Malaysia and everybody by now knows Anwar Ibrahim from the videotape. I said: 'If you have a videotape what the heck do you need me for?'"

"He replied: 'So that the Americans will know too.'"

Rahman said he dropped Ong at the New York apartment of a Malaysian diplomat, who passed a booklet to Ong.

"Ong put his hand on my shoulder and tried to convince me to spend the night there," Rahman said.

"I refused. Ong showed me the booklet and said 'Why don't you sign this and we can make up to 200,000 dollars? Don't be crazy'."

Rahman said he replied: "You are looking at the craziest man in the world, that's me. You go ahead and say Anwar Ibrahim made sexual passes at you. You can say anything you want and you make the money. Have a good day."He did not say what the booklet contained.

Rahman said he returned to Washington and told the ambassador, Datuk Dali, what happened.

He said the ambassador, who was very upset, told him the embassy had nothing to do with the incident and urged him to forget it.

Rahman said he wanted to "get this thing off my chest" and went to see Sheikh Taha, a friend of Anwar's and president of an Islamic university in Virginia.

He told Taha about the conversation and signed an affidavit about it.Rahman said Anwar had never made sexual passes at him.

"So this Mustafa Ong wanted you to fabricate evidence against Anwar?" Fernando asked.

"I think so, yes," Rahman replied.

He said that en route to New York Ong asked him to meet someone from the staff of Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, who is now deputy premier. Fernando asked why.

"I understood if I say what they wanted me to say I would get the money," Rahman replied. No meeting took place.

The case is continuing.

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