Anwar's opponents attempt to link him to Wolfowitz scandal

Malaysian opposition figure Anwar Ibrahim has become entangled in the downfall of Paul Wolfowitz amid allegations that he wrote a letter requesting that the World Bank president's girlfriend be transferred to a high-paying job with the Foundation for the Future, which Mr Anwar chairs.

Mr Anwar's opponents have latched onto the case as evidence for their recurring allegations that he is a US partisan.

Government-linked mainstream newspapers last week reported that Mr Anwar wrote to an aide of Dr Wolfowitz requesting the transfer of Shaha Riza, Dr Wolfowitz's girlfriend, from the bank to the foundation.

She was ostensibly transferred to avoid a conflict of interest, but in the job change, she received a 36 per cent pay rise, a scandal that has cost Dr Wolfowitz his job.

Mr Anwar's longtime friendship with Dr Wolfowitz has attracted occasional criticism in Malaysia. Dr Wolfowitz actively campaigned to free the former deputy prime minister after he was jailed on corruption charges in 1999.

Their friendship goes back to the mid-1980s when Dr Wolfowitz was US ambassador in Jakarta.

Dr Wolfowitz, a key player in the US invasion of Iraq, flew to Germany to see Mr Anwar after his release in 2004.