Berlin - German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier phoned his Afghan counterpart Saturday to voice concern at a new marriage law applying to Afghanistan's Shiite Muslim minority.

The German Foreign Ministry said Minister Rangin Dadfar Spanta replied that Afghan President Hamid Karzai had suspended the gazetting of the law and ordered a legal review of it.

Critics say the law legalizes rape within marriage, because a Shiite woman would not be allowed to refuse her husband sex without a valid reason.

On Saturday, however, Afghan President Hamid Karzai denied this and blamed poor translation and "misinterpretation" of the text of the law for the foreign criticism.

Steinmeier said he and the international community were concerned at the terms of the family law for Shiites, who make up 10 per cent of Afghanistan's population.

A German website, Spiegel Online, said the law also provides that a husband has a right to sex at least one night in four at all times when he is not away from home. (dpa)