The Australian Government has formally apologised to members of the indigenous Aborigine population forcibly taken from their homes.

Tens of thousands of Aborigine children were taken from their parents between the 1870s and 1960s under now abandoned assimilation policies, and placed in orphanages or fostered to introduce them to European culture.

The apology to the 'Stolen Generation' was a manifesto pledge of Prime Minister Kevin Rudd.

Mr Rudd formally put forth a motion on Wednesday asking parliament to apologise for past policies that "inflicted profound grief, suffering and loss" on Australia's indigenous people.

It continued: "We apologise for the laws and policies of successive parliaments and governments that have inflicted profound grief, suffering and loss on these our fellow Australians."

The apology ends years of divisive debate and a decade of refusals by the previous government, ousted in November elections by Mr Rudd's Labour Party.

It places Australia among a handful of nations that have offered official apologies to oppressed minorities - including Canada's 1998 apology to its native people, South Africa's 1992 expression of regret for apartheid and the US Congress' 1988 law apologising to Japanese-Americans for their internment during World War II.

The reading of the apology and the parliamentary vote was broadcast nationally.

Earlier, Indigenous Affairs Minister Jenny Macklin said: "The apology will be made on behalf of the Australian government and does not attribute guilt to the current generation of Australian people.

"Firstly, our commitment to saying 'Sorry' is clear cut. I said so before the election, I said if we're elected we'll do it, and we're going to do it. And I've said repeatedly the reason for so doing, is that there's unfinished business here on the part of the nation."

But aboriginal demands for almost £500 million in reparations for victims have been ruled out.

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