11:50am UK, Wednesday August 04, 2004

Action hero turned politician Arnold Schwarzenegger says he was beaten regularly by his father.

The Terminator star said he suffered what "would now be called child abuse".

Schwarzenegger's abuse claim

In a frank interview, he said he was hit by father Gustav, a wartime Nazi party official, to make him "conform".

But he rebelled and never gave up his dream of escaping his home to become rich and famous.

Schwarzenegger made a name for himself as a body builder after he arrived in America at the age of 21.

He then took up acting and is now the Governor of California.

He told Fortune magazine: "My hair was pulled. I was hit with belts. So was the kid next door, and so was the kid next door to him.

"It was just the way it was. Many of the children I've seen were broken by their parents, which was the German-Austrian mentality.

"Break the will. They didn't want to create an individual. It was all about conforming."

But he went on: "I was one who did not conform and whose will could not be broken."

Republican Schwarzenegger was elected Governor of California - the world's fifth largest economy - at the end of last year.

His latest film is Around The World In Eighty Days, in which he has a cameo role. It stars comedian Steve Coogan.