WELLINGTON - A WOMAN whose sexual misconduct complaint led to the resignation of a New Zealand government minister has withdrawn her charge, police said on Friday.

Internal Affairs Minister Richard Worth was forced to resign last month by Prime Minister John Key following sexual allegations by a Korean businesswoman living in Auckland.

Police confirmed the businesswoman had withdrawn the complaint, reportedly surrounding an incident in which Mr Worth accompanied her to a Wellington hotel.

'At no time did police suggest to the complainant that she should withdraw her complaint,' Wellington police said in a statement.

'Police will need to assess all the information we have to bring the file to a state of finality.' Worth, who is married, resigned as a minister and quit parliament following the unspecified allegations, as well as claims by another Auckland woman that he had hounded her with 'vulgar' text messages and phone calls.

Commercial television quoted a source close to the businesswoman as saying she felt the political cost to Mr Worth had been sufficient and going through the courts would have been an ordeal with little to gain.

Mr Worth said last month that his conscience was clear, but that the decision to resign was in the best interests of Key's National Party.

He said he had committed no crime and was confident he would be cleared of any criminal conduct.

Mr Worth was the first minister to resign since Key's centre-right National Party swept into government in elections in November, ending nine years in power for Helen Clark's Labour Party. -- AFP