HONG KONG - Pop star Leon Lai on Tuesday confirmed reports of his child's premature birth, but also berated the "traitor" who had leaked the story to the media.

Since Monday night, reporters had started waiting outside the hospital where Lai's assistant Wing Chan was said to have delivered a daughter, reported Ming Pao Daily News. The baby is the firstborn of Lai, 51, and Chan, 32.

But Lai was not seen in hospital on Tuesday, and said he had no plans to pay another visit.

He wrote on Facebook: "I am sincerely grateful to the hospital's maternity nurses and doctors. Their professionalism commands 100 per cent of my respect. But in the end an unknown person reported it to a reporter and turned the hospital into a waiting place for other reporters.

He said he was concerned that the reporters were disturbing other mothers and patients because of him, and added: "The parents of premature babies have to focus and co-operate with doctors, but if I were to appear again, it would add more pressure to the hospital."

He thanked the reporters for doing their jobs, but also appealed to their editors to pull out the photojournalists and "let the hospital return to normal".

"I will not appear in the hospital again," he said. "I prefer to spend time with my family in private spaces."

Finally, he had strong words for the source who had let the cat out of the bag. He said the incident forced him to look back on the history of Japan's invasion of China, which he had learnt at school.

"Some people actually have this traitor gene and like to break the news," he wrote. "He or she turns the issues people face in serious moments into gossip by telling the media, then he or she turns into the peanut gallery. This is a strange phenomenon in our society today."