Home Affairs Minister Azmi Khalid said he would convey an apology to the Chinese government on the spate of police abuse cases involving their nationals in Malaysia.

Responding to a question on whether he would tender an apology during his upcoming visit to the republic, he replied: "We will apologise where we are wrong, definitely. There's nothing wrong to admit if there are mistakes."

Azmi has been instructed by Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi to go to China in order to restore the confidence of the Chinese following the recent incidents.

Without revealing too much details, the minister said he would be going to three places in China during the one-week trip.

Action needed as well

On the same note, Azmi said word and action must go in tandem if efforts to clear the misconception that Malaysian authorities have been targeting Chinese nationals are to be successful.

He said verbally convincing the Chinese that Malaysian agencies had never specifically targeted Chinese women would be meaningless if allegations of Chinese women visitors being subjected to wrongful treatment still cropped up.

"It will be shameful if I go there and tell them one thing but here we do something else," he was quoted as saying by Bernama .

His trip however has been clouded by the latest police abuse allegation to surface in the form of a video-clip .

The 71-second footage showed a woman, believed to be of Chinese origin, being forced to do ear-squats in the nude while facing a policewoman.

The scandal , exposed by DAP parliamentarian Teresa Kok, has evoked widespread outrage, with even the prime minister and his deputy condemning it.