JAKARTA, May 16 (AFP) - 14:40 - Indonesia's top legislator Amien Rais on Tuesday urged Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad to treat his jailed former deputy Anwar Ibrahim in a "civilized" manner, the state Antara news agency reported.

"The rather uncivilized treatment against Anwar Ibrahim must be stopped and the best solution should be sought (to his case)," Antara quoted Rais, the speaker of the People's Consultative Assembly, as saying.

He said Indonesia should also help find a solution to the Anwar saga, but quickly added that the effort should not be interpreted as "interference" in the domestic affairs of Malaysia, a close neighbor.

Rais was speaking at a press conference with Anwar's wife Wan Azizah Wan Ismail at the Al Azhar mosque in south Jakarta, where both addressed a gathering of Muslim youths.

Wan Azizah, herself an MP, is here for a two-day conference on democratic transitions in Asia. She has also met with President Abdurrahman Wahid and parliament Speaker Akbar Tanjung.

Anwar had served Malaysia well, and therefore he deserved good treatment, Rais said.

In his speech at the mosque, Rais urged Mahathir to learn from the examples of former president Suharto, who ruled Indonesia for 32 years, and the late Philippine dictator Ferdinand Marcos.

Suharto was ousted in May 1998 amid mass protests and a crippling economic crisis, and Marcos fell in a people's power movement in 1986.

Wan Azizah meanwhile denied that her husband had been guilty of abuse of power, as charged, when he was a deputy prime minister.

"There was not the slightest abuse of power as in the charges levelled against my husband," Wan Azizah told the mosque gathering.

She also said the authorities limited her contacts with Anwar.

"I can only meet him once in three weeks only through the glass window. I wish I could meet him directly and touch his hands," she said.

On Sunday, Wan Azizah told AFP she had met with Wahid over breakfast on Saturday, and that Wahid, though sympathetic, had reminded her of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations' principle of non-interference.

Both Indonesia, where public sympathy for Anwar has been high since the fall of Suharto, and Malaysia are ASEAN members.

Anwar, 52, was heir apparent to Mahathir until he was sacked in September 1998 and detained. He was jailed for six years in April 1999 for abusing his powers and is now on trial for sodomy.

The former deputy prime minister says all the charges against him stem from a political conspiracy because he intended to expose corruption and was seen as a threat to Mahathir.

Late last month he lost his appeal against the six-year jail term for abuse of power but angrily denounced what he called "political persecution" through the courts.