Malaysia's Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim on Friday barred his cabinet members from going on leave, after the displacement this week of more than 90,000 people in a growing flood disaster that officials fear could be country's worst in a decade.

The death toll from the worst floods in decades in southern Thailand and northern Malaysia climbed to at least 12 on Saturday, authorities said, as tens of thousands of people were evacuated due to rising water levels in the past three days.