Malaysian health minister admits being caught in sex-sting videos

Malaysia's health minister, who is one of the country's most senior Chinese political leaders, has admitted he is the man featured having sex with a young woman in a hotel room in DVDs that were distributed to hundreds of ethnic Chinese households and businesses in southern Johore state.

'I am the man ... the girl is a personal friend,' Chua Soi Lek, who is married, said at a press conference yesterday.

'I have apologised to the prime minister, his deputy and my family,' the 60-year old said in the town of Labis in Johore, his political power base.

Dr Chua said he would not resign, a position political analysts say is untenable in the conservative, Muslim majority nation.

In addition to his health portfolio, Dr Chua is vice-president of the Malaysian Chinese Association (MCA), the biggest Chinese party in the country.

He is believed to be a victim of a sting operation that used various cameras in a hotel room to entrap him with the woman. Police are investigating how the video was made and who distributed it over the weekend.

'Now that he has confessed, his position as minister is untenable,' said Lim Guan Eng, secretary general of the opposition Democratic Action Party. 'The person is a senior minister, married and cannot continue as a minister after this scandal. The best thing is for him to quit.'