Peters may have sat on a spider

Foreign Minister Winston Peters was discharged from a private hospital in Brisbane yesterday with a mystery illness that may have been caused by sitting on a spider.

Mr Peters was admitted to Wesley Hospital on Saturday after arriving from Malaysia, where he had suffered a bite at a luncheon in Kuala Lumpur.

Prime Minister Helen Clark initially suggested it might have been an insect bite, but Mr Peters is understood to believe that a spider was the more likely culprit.

New Zealand First deputy leader Peter Brown said he did not know what had bitten his chief. "All I've heard is that it was an insect or something that he sat on. But whether it was inside his trouser leg or he sat on it and it pierced it, I don't know."

Mr Brown said the NZ First caucus had yesterday cautioned Mr Peters, its leader, against rushing back to work, particularly as a two-week parliamentary recess begins next week.

Mr Brown suggested it would make sense for Mr Peters to stay around Brisbane for a few days. His office did not know when he would be returning to New Zealand.

Mr Peters' partner, businesswoman Jan Trotman of Auckland, is with him. She flew to Australia to join him on his way back from a meeting of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations regional forum.

Mr Peters' spokesman said yesterday that his condition had stabilised but the cause of the illness remained a mystery. The hospital confirmed that Mr Peters was discharged yesterday after lunch.

Auckland medical travel specialist Dr Marc Shaw said last night that he had come across a few cases of people suffering spider bites in Malaysia.

The symptoms were general malaise - tiredness, lethargy, muscle aches and pains - and fever, which could last four or five days.