KUALA LUMPUR, MALAYSIA - A MALAYSIAN court on Wednesday rejected a move to summon the country's deputy premier to testify in court over the murder of a Mongolian woman with whom he has been linked.

A lawyer representing the family of slain 28-year-old Altantuya Shaariibuu filed a court notice to compel Deputy Prime Minister Najib Razak and two other policemen to give evidence.

But Judge Mohamed Zaki Mohamed Yasin said there was no need to call Datuk Seri Najib to testify.

'The court will only excercise that when the need arises, before a decision is made', the judge said, adding that 'at this moment, these applications are rejected'.

The lawyer, Mr Karpal Singh, had also asked the court to summon private investigator P. Balasubramaniam to give evidencein the murder case after his sworn statement last month, linking Mr Najib to Ms Altantuya, which he swiftly retracted.

Mr Balasubramaniam, who went missing after his explosive statements, is in hiding in a neighbouring South-east Asian country, police have said.

Ms Altantuya was murdered in 2006 and her body blown up with explosives in a remote forest, and Mr Najib's close friend, Abdul Razak Baginda, is on trial for abetting the murder.

Abdul Razak, who told the court that Ms Altantuya was his former lover, had hired Mr Balasubramanian to keep her away from him before she was murdered.

Mr Najib has denied ever meeting her.

Mongolian honorary consul Syed Abdul Rahman Al Habshi, who was present at Wednesday's proceedings, said Ms Altantuya's father, Mr Setev Shaariibuu, expressed his 'frustration' over the way the trial was going.

'He is frustrated, he can't see any light at the end of the tunnel. Where is justice?' he said.

The court hearing began on June 18, 2007, but has been caught in a web of complex legal proceedings. The judge has yet to decide if government lawyers have a case against Abdul Razak and the two policemen. -- AFP