Kuala Lumpur: Malaysian police have made two more arrests over a sex tape featuring the health minister who was forced to resign over the scandal last week, reports said today.

The New Straits Times said a 48-year-old DVD vendor found in possession of three copies of the recording, and a woman in her 20s, were detained yesterday on suspicion of distributing the footage.

Police have already arrested a 29-year-old beauty salon owner and a 50-year-old farmer over the video, which showed married minister Chua Soi Lek having sex in a hotel room with an unidentified woman.

After the tape began circulating in southern Johor state last month, the 61-year-old minister quickly admitted his involvement and resigned, saying the scandal was engineered by political "enemies". The New Straits Times said that the salon owner and the farmer were known to each other and believed to be politically active.

Police have warned it is an offence to possess the DVD or transfer it to a computer, and that anyone who has a copy should destroy it or surrender it to the authorities.

The episode is the latest in a series of problems besetting Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi's government, and comes as it prepares for elections expected to be held this year. 

Source : PTI