Malay daily Utusan Malaysia today admitted its mistake and corrected the error in its front page report four days ago which said that John R Malott, former American ambassador to Malaysia, had attended a secret briefing by opposition party Keadilan on jailed ex-deputy premier Anwar Ibrahim's health.

In its correction on page three today, the daily also apologised to Malott who was not even in Malaysia for "any distress or embarrassment" that he suffered as a consequence of the March 30 report entitled " Bekas Duta Amerika hadiri pertemuan sulit Keadilan " (Former US Ambassador attended secret meeting with Keadilan).

In the apology, Utusan said that the report was published "based on information we believed to be reliable".

It explained that its journalist saw one of the two representatives of the United States Embassy, James F Entwistle and Alexis Ludwig, at the hotel where the meeting was held and had mistaken one of them for Malott.

'Villians'

However, the Utusan apology was not extended to the opposition's top leaders who were alleged in the same report to have attended the briefing, though all have denied doing so.

They include PAS president Fadzil Noor, DAP president Lim Kit Siang, PRM president Dr Syed Husin Ali, DAP secretary-general Kerk Kim Hock. All four have registered their protest over the news report, saying that it was a politically motivated move to associate the opposition with foreigners and to portray them as 'villains who would sell-out their country'.

Keadilan president Dr Wan Azizah Wan Ismail was reported to have said that she briefed several foreign diplomats on Anwar's spinal injury only in her capacity as his wife and mother of their children.