Kuala Lumpur - Malaysian opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim took his place Thursday as a member of Parliament, ending a decade-long political hiatus.

Anwar - dressed in a navy traditional Malay shirt, pants and cap - was sworn in as a legislator in a simple ceremony in Parliament amid loud thumping of desks by approving opposition members.

Anwar was also officially declared leader of the three-party opposition alliance.

"I was touched and vindicated coming back to Parliament after 10 years," Anwar told reporters after the ceremony.

"After all that I had gone through in that time, now it feels good to be back," he said. "It is my right."

Anwar, a former deputy prime minister who was booted from the government in 1998 as he faced criminal charges he said were politically motivated, regained his parliamentary seat by a landslide in a special election Tuesday in a northern Penang constituency.

The election came five months after he led the opposition to unprecedented gains in the March 8 general elections, in which the government lost control of five states and was denied a two-thirds majority in Parliament for the first time in history.

Anwar, 61, a self-proclaimed prime minister-in-waiting, has said he would topple the government by September 16 via defections by government lawmakers.

The opposition People's Alliance coalition now holds 82 seats in Parliament and needs 30 more to form a government.

Anwar, a rising political star when he was fired as deputy prime minister by former premier Mahathir Mohamad in 1998 and jailed for six years after being convicted of corruption and sodomizing his family's driver.

After serving out the corruption sentence, Malaysia's federal court overturned his sodomy conviction in 2004.

Anwar has maintained he was innocent of all charges and claimed he was framed to avert a political challenge to Mahathir. The government has denied the allegations.

In June, Anwar was forced to face similar accusations when a 23-year old former male aide lodged a report alleging that Anwar had sodomized him.

Anwar was charged in court and has pleaded not guilty to the allegations, which he also slammed as politically motivated. A court has set September 10 for his trial. (dpa)