KUALA LUMPUR (Malaysia) - MALAYSIAN police have arrested nine Christians accused of trying to convert Muslim university students - a serious crime punishable by prison in this Muslim-majority country, a lawyer said on Wednesday.

Lawyer Annou Xavier said that the group, including two Malaysian students from Universiti Putra Malaysia and four others visiting from Hong Kong, were detained at the campus on Tuesday.

'The nine have been arrested based on the police reports of five Malay students who claim that the group showed and gave them Christian pamphlets and material,' the lawyer told AFP.

The suspects have denied the allegation, which could aggravate complaints by religious minorities that authorities are increasingly ignoring their rights in favour of Islam.

He said the nine were released on police bail on Wednesday and have not yet been charged. A police spokesman said they were held on trespass allegations and that an investigation was underway, although he said he was confident the allegations were a 'misunderstanding'.

Proselytising of Muslims is illegal and carries a heavy jail sentence in parts of Malaysia.

Conversions are a sensitive issue in multicultural Malaysia, where minority groups including ethnic Chinese and Indians - who practise Hinduism, Buddhism, Christianity and other religions - fear their rights are being undermined.

Muslims, who comprise nearly 60 per cent of Malaysia's 27 million people, are also not legally permitted to change religion.

The Star daily reported this week that a police complaint had been lodged against two Muslim reporters with an Islamic magazine, who were accused of going undercover to a church to investigate alleged secret conversions.-- AP, AFP