A Malaysian minister said he would visit China to explain that its nationals are not being targeted by enforcement authorities, following "shameful" allegations that police forced a Chinese woman to strip.

Home Affairs Minister Azmi Khalid said he had been instructed by Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi to make the trip.

The move follows allegations by a female Chinese national that she was taken to a police station and forced to strip after policemen said her passport was fake.

The official Bernama news agency said yesterday that a video recording of a naked woman believed to be the complainant has come to light. She was apparently recorded while being made to do squats. A female policewoman was seen watching her.

The 30-second video clip, said to have been taken by a mobile phone camera, was shown to Azmi and several other MPs, who described it as "terrible and shameful," Bernama news agency said.

"The prime minister has telephoned me and instructed me to go there to restore the confidence of Chinese nationals toward our country," Azmi was quoted as saying by Bernama.

Illegal motives

He said the issue was "very urgent" and he had to delay his trip to Pakistan and would also be unable to help campaign in an upcoming by-election.

Azmi said Immigration Department officials did not have a policy of perceiving female Chinese nationals entering Malaysia as having illegal motives.

On the video, he said it was difficult to determine if the woman was the tourist. "However, a detailed probe will be conducted following this shameful incident."

A major Malaysian resort in July was forced to apologise to hundreds of Chinese tourists after rude behaviour by its staff. More than 300 China tourists staged a six-hour sit-in in protest over pig drawings that staff had sketched on their room key dockets.

Malaysian authorities this week said they were cracking down on illegal Chinese immigrants following reports that some 50,000 who arrived on tourist visas have failed to depart this year alone.

Authorities say they believe some Chinese women have been lured into the vice trade, while others used Malaysia as a transit point to enter other countries, and some simply melted into the local population.