KUALA LUMPUR, Jan 27 (AFP) - Lawyers in the trial of Malaysia's Anwar Ibrahim said Thursday they would call civil servants to prove that the then-deputy premier was abroad at the time he is alleged to have sodomised his driver in 1993.

They told AFP the dates of the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan that year would also play a part in establishing an alibi defence against the sodomy charge, which can carry a 20-year jail term.

Anwar, whose trial resumed Tuesday after a two-month break, claims he is the victim of a high-level political conspiracy by people close to his former mentor, Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad.

But his alibi defence suffered a setback Wednesday when defence lawyers said they could not locate his old passport showing he was abroad at the time of the alleged offence, even though they have photocopies.

Lead defence counsel Christopher Fernando told the high court Thursday that Anwar's old passport could not be found.

He sought an adjournment for the defence to "call several witnesses from the finance ministry who were on duty in 1993 to testify that they accompanied (Anwar) on his trips abroad on the relevant dates."

Judge Arifin Jaka approved the request, saying this was "something unexpected," and adjourned the case to Friday.

Anwar and his co-accused Sukma Darmawan are charged with sodomising driver Azizan Abu Bakar at Sukma's apartment on "one night at 7.45pm, between January and March, 1993."

Prosecutors earlier in the trial had twice amended the charge to change the year of the alleged offence, despite defence objections.

The defence has said it will show that Anwar has an alibi from 11 February, 1993, onwards. The bed on which the act allegedly took place was only delivered to the apartment on February 12.

The defence intends to call three to four finance ministry officers to show Anwar was abroad on certain dates as shown by photocopies of the missing passport, Fernando told AFP.

He said the defence need not show an alibi for weekends and Mondays, as Azizan had earlier testified he was sodomised on a working day and that the previous day was also a working day.

He said Azizan had also told the court he had lunch on the day he was sodomised. This ruled out Ramadan, which lasted from late February to late March in 1993.

Muslims must not eat between dawn and dusk during Ramadan.

Mahathir sacked Anwar from the cabinet on September 2, 1998. Anwar was detained 18 days later after leading mass anti-government protests.He was jailed for six years last April for abusing his official powers to cover up allegations of sexual misconduct.