"Taslima Nasreen has been offered a safe haven in town of Uppsala for two years," a spokeswoman for the PEN Club, Maria Modig, told AFP, adding that she had been provided a monthly allowance and an apartment in the town located 70 kilometres north of Stockholm.

Modig would not confirm Swedish media reports that the allowance amounted to USD 829 a month, and provided no other details citing security reasons.

The writer was forced to flee Bangladesh in 1994 to live in exile, in Sweden among other countries, after radical Muslims accused her of blasphemy over her novel Lajja (Shame) which depicts the life of a Hindu family persecuted by Muslims in Bangladesh.

She has lived in exile since then, in Europe and the United States.

Nasreen was forced to flee the West Bengal state capital of Kolkata in November after receiving death threats from radical Indian Muslims and lived in hiding in New Delhi under Indian government security protection until March, when she fled to Sweden.

She had been seeking permanent residence in India, but New Delhi had stalled the request, fearful of a backlash from the country's 140-million-plus Muslims.

Last month, she said she planned to return to her adoptive home India by August to renew her residency permit.