Kuala Lumpur. Malaysian premier Najib Razak on Thursday met church leaders in a bid to ease religious tensions stirred by a report that minority Christians wanted to replace Islam as the official religion.

Church leaders have angrily denounced the report, which ran in the government-linked newspaper Utusan Malaysia on Saturday, describing it as “baseless and highly irresponsible.”

Council of Churches of Malaysia president, Bishop Thomas Tsen, said the meeting with Najib helped defuse tensions.

“We had a very good session and good exchange,” Tsen said “It was a very good start.”

Religion and language are sensitive issues in multi-racial Malaysia, which was hit by deadly race riots in 1969.

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