Wellington  - Leaders of New Zealand's Maori Party Friday urged one of its lawmakers, Hone Harawira, to quit after he accused the country's white majority population of "raping our land and ripping us off for centuries."

"We're having difficulty controlling him," Pita Sharples, co-leader of the party which supports the centre-right government, told a press conference.

He said Harawira's comments in an email to a Maori elder were riddled with obscenities and had provoked hundreds of protests to the party leaders.

"Quite clearly there is concern in New Zealand about his behaviour," said Sharples, who is also minister of Maori affairs.

Harawira's email replied to a message from an elder asking who had paid for his wife's unscheduled trip with him to Paris when the legislator was supposed to be leading a parliamentary delegation to the European Union in Brussels.

Harawira responded asking him if he was buying into "that white- man bulls..." adding that "white motherf... ers have been raping our lands and ripping us off for centuries."

It prompted a record 365 complaints in five days to Race Relations Commissioner Joris de Bres and Maori Party president Whatarangi Winiata said after a meeting with Harawira on Thursday that "his words and deeds have had a devastating effect on his colleagues and the party as a whole."

Winiata gave the 54-year-old father of seven two weeks to resign from the party and become an independent.

Sharples and co-leader Tariana Turia moved Friday to hasten the process, saying Harawira had placed himself outside the party and its other four members of parliament.

Harawira's departure from the party would not affect the centre-right government led by Prime Minister John Key and his conservative National Party. (dpa)