Malaysian Christians Wednesday hailed the government's release of some 35,000 Bibles seized in a dispute over the use of the word "Allah" by non-Muslims.

The government has argued that the use of the word "Allah" as a translation for "God" by Christian minorities could cause confusion and encourage conversion, which is illegal for the country's majority Muslim Malays.

The "Allah" row saw an unprecedented spate of attacks and firebombings on places of worships last year, after a court ruling overturned the ban on non-Muslims using the word. The government is currently appealing the verdict.

The Malay-language Bibles, imported from Indonesia, were seized in January by custom officials at two major ports, sparking outrage among church groups and members of the ruling coalition.

The government announced late Tuesday that it had decided to release the Bibles as they do not "prejudice or jeopardise" the ongoing court case, which authorities had earlier claimed was the reason behind the seizure. "The government is committed to resolve amicably any inter-faith issues as Malaysia is a multi-religious society," Idris Jala, the Minister in the Prime Minister's Department, said in a statement.

Church officials welcomed the decision but urged the government to withdraw its appeal on the "Allah" court case "in good faith".

"We maintain the position that it is an inalienable right for Christians to read their scriptures in any language," Reverend Hermen Shastri, the general secretary of the Malaysian Council of Churches said.

"This is a basic human right," he told AFP.

The "Allah" row is one of a string of religious disputes that have erupted in recent years, straining relations between majority Malays and minorities who fear the country is being "Islamised".

Malaysia's Christians, who make up nine percent of the population and many from indigenous groups in Borneo who speak the national language Malay, say they have used the word without incident for centuries.