JAKARTA -- Muslims in Indonesia have been banned from doing yoga if they engage in Hindu religious rituals during the exercise, the chairman of the country's top Islamic body said Sunday.

About 700 clerics from the Indonesian Council of Ulemas (MUI) agreed on the action late Sunday at a national meeting in West Sumatra province, Ma'ruf Amin told AFP by telephone.

"The yoga practice that contains religious rituals of Hinduism including the recitation of mantras is "haram" (forbidden in Islam)," he said.

"Muslims should not practice other religious rituals as it will erode and weaken their Islamic faith," he added.

But Amin said that Indonesian Muslims were still allowed to do yoga strictly as exercise.

"If it is purely a physical exercise or sport, it is not considered as 'haram,'" he added.

Religious edicts issued by the MUI are not legally binding on Muslims but it is considered sinful to ignore them.

"If Muslims refuse to follow this clerics' fatwa, it means that they commit a sin," Amin said.

Yoga, an ancient Indian aid to meditation dating back thousands of years, is a popular stress-buster in the Indonesian capital of Jakarta.

Nearly 90 percent of Indonesia's 234 million people are Muslim, most of whom practice a moderate strain of the religion.