The 48-year-old former frontman of The Smiths is recording in Los Angeles and was not at London's High Court for the settlement of his libel action over an article by David Quantick in Word Magazine in March this year.

His solicitor, John Reid, told Mr Justice Eady in London that the closing paragraph could have been construed to suggest that he was a racist, held racist opinions or that - as the child of migrant parents - was a hypocrite.

It also suggested that he had in the past paid lip-service only to anti-racism.

Mr Reid said that publishers Development Hell and editor Mark Ellen never intended the article to have the suggested meanings and wished to make it "absolutely clear" that they dissociated themselves entirely from any such inferences.

Their solicitor, Caroline Kean, offered their "sincere apologies" to Morrissey.