English daily The Sun today apologised to Home Minister Ahmad Zahid Hamidi over a "wrongly attributed quote" that was widely picked up by other media organisations recently.

On Sept 2, the daily ran a report that was titled "Zahid: Non-Malays getting arrogant", but the minister refuted the report, saying it was taken "out of context".

A transcript obtained by Malaysiakini also revealed that the home minister did not use the word "arrogant" but had however agreed with Segambut Umno chief Kamaruddin Ambok that non-Malays were becoming more “insolent”.

Zahid also said that he wished to meet the reporter who had wrote the story.

According to the daily, the controversial quote was actually uttered by another Umno leader at the Segambut Umno meeting that day, and not Zahid.

"We regret the inadvertent error and wish to apologise to the minister for any embarrassment arising from our report," the paper said in an editorial.

The daily said it is retracting the report and had removed it from their website yesterday.

Gerakan had previously said Zahid's wrongfully attributed quotes were " seditious ".