JAKARTA: An Indonesian minister has suggested an unusual reason for the scourge of corruption in the graft-ridden country men are just trying to please their greedy wives.

Indonesia has struggled against graft for years, with the country`s vast bureaucracy crippled by corruption and leading public figures, from ministers to senior judges, jailed for accepting kickbacks.

But rather than taking aim at the grasping officials themselves, Religious Affairs Minister Lukman Hakim Saifuddin suggested it was greedy wives who were fuelling corruption.

The wives of the elite in Indonesia are well-known for their love of expensive designer clothes and handbags.

`Corruption is often motivated by many things,` he was cited as saying in Kompas newspaper, referring to `extraordinary demands` from family members that pushed people to behave unusually.-AFP