Washington, July 30 : Whitney Houston has confessed that she was apprehensive about working with pop sensation Akon, when her mentor Clive Davis first suggested the collaboration.

The `I'm every woman' hitmaker wanted to recreate her 1999 hit ''My Love Is Your Love'', in which she worked with Wyclef Jean, but had reservations in regard of the `Locked Up' singer.

"When Clive told me I would be working with Akon, I thought, ''Hmm, interesting, um, all right,''" Contactmusic quoted her as saying.

She said: "I wanted the record like ''My Love Is Your Love'' with an island feel. I wanted an island record because ''My Love Is Your Love'' is so huge and it has its own fashion with Wyclef.

"I wanted that feeling, but I didn''t know who could do that. And Clive came and said, ''Akon is the guy that we''re going to work with.'' And I was like, ''OK, Akon. OK, I can deal with that.'' "

In fact the first meeting with the `Lonely' singer did not convince her that she could pull it off with him, but is now glad, that it worked out really well.

She added: "I was asking him, ''Did your mother name you Akon?'' And he said, ''No, it means a convict.'' And I thought, ''Oh, God. OK, all right, I can handle that.''

"He''s a gentleman. He did his work very well. We did it very quickly, very diligently, and I''m very proud of that record. It''s a great record." (ANI)