Britain's Zayn Malik quits One Direction tour with stress

Malik, 22, is to return home to Britain as the band goes on to play shows from the Philippines to South Africa, through Europe and the United States.

"Zayn has been signed off with stress and is flying back to the UK to recuperate," a spokesman for One Direction said.

"The band wish him well and will continue with their performances" in the Philippines and Indonesia.

The announcement came after pictures of Malik, who is engaged to marry Little Mix popstar Perrie Edwards, were widely shared online showing him close to another woman.

One of the pictures showed him holding hands with the blonde, while the two posed with his arm around her stomach in another.

Malik spoke out against speculation about their relationship by declaring his love for his fiancee.

"I'm 22 years old... I love a girl named Perrie Edwards. And there's a lot of jealous f****s in this world I'm sorry for what it looks like x" Malik wrote in a Tweet to his 14.1 million followers.

One of the world's biggest pop music acts, One Direction is to continue its world tour, which has dates through the summer before finishing with a string of sold-out dates in Britain.

Malik, who is from Bradford in northern England, was picked to be in One Direction after each of the band's five members auditioned separately to be on reality TV show X Factor in 2010.

His fellow band mates have not explicitly addressed the events on social media, though Liam Payne tweeted "What a day".

Malik paid a cash bond to the Philippines on Thursday that was imposed because of drug concerns, allowing them to play two concerts this weekend, the immigration bureau said.

The bond, 200,000 pesos ($4,500) each for singers Zayn Malik and Louis Tomlinson, will be forfeited should the two get caught using or promoting illegal drugs, Bureau of Immigration spokeswoman Elaine Tan told AFP.

The bond requirement was in response to an anti-drug watchdog group's request for "strict scrutiny" of Malik and Tomlinson before they were issued work permits, she said.

"The condition is intended to protect the public interest should the band members commit any violation during their stay in the Philippines," she said.

A video of Malik, 22 and Tomlinson, 23 apparently smoking marijuana in a car while on tour in Peru went viral last year and shocked the tattooed but baby-faced quintet's hordes of female fans.

The group is scheduled to hold concerts at the seafront grounds of the Philippines' largest mall, which can accomodate tens of thousands of people, on March 21 and 22.

The mega-venue has in the past hosted teen idols Justin Bieber and Justin Timberlake.

Tickets for the first night have sold out and the second date is expected to sell out as well, Gina Santiago, an executive assistant of the group's Philippine promoter, Ovation Productions, told AFP.

When asked about the reported marijuana bond, Santiago said the band's promoters were at the immigration department on Thursday to "sort out" the issue and the concerts would go ahead.

However she was unable to confirm that a bond had been paid.

One Direction, one of the world's biggest pop music acts, is very popular in the Philippines. The group currently has five albums on the local iTunes album chart.