Mandela praises former S Africa President De Klerk

CAPE TOWN, Mar 17 (Reuters) Nelson Mandela today paid tribute to his friend and former foe FW de Klerk for his 70th birthday, praising his predecessor as South African President for steering the country from the brink of a bloody racial war.

The two icons of South African politics shared jokes about growing old and reminisced about the delicate path through which they led South Africa out of apartheid.

''You have shown courage that few have done in similar circumstances,'' Mandela said at a lavish dinner in Cape Town attended by some of the country's top businesspeople and sitting and former politicians.

De Klerk shocked the world in February 1990 by announcing Mandela's release from 27 years as a political prisoner, putting South Africa on an historic path that, four years later, ended white minority rule.

The pair, who fought bitter public battles in the run-up to the 1994 poll, won the 1993 Nobel Peace Prize for negotiating a peaceful transition to an all-race democracy.

''There is almost unchallenged recognition and appreciation that without the courageous foresight of FW de Klerk we might well have descended into the destructive racial conflagration that all were predicting,'' Mandela told guests that included fellow Nobel laureate Desmond Tutu.

De Klerk, the last president of the National Party that enacted apartheid, retired from politics in 1997.

He told reporters he was proud of what South Africa had achieved.

''My message to South Africans is let's hang in there, we have achieved something which the world never expected ... I believe South Africa is going to become a winning country,'' De Klerk said.

''I enjoyed my presidency tremendously. It offered me together with my colleagues an opportunity to avert a catastrophe.'' The 87-year old Mandela, walking slowly with a stick and aided by De Klerk, said it was good to see the two icons of South African politics growing old gracefully together.

''I still have my hair, although it is a little bit greyer,'' he told the bald De Klerk. ''I hope that over the years I did not contribute to yours falling out.'' De Klerk turns 70 on March 18.

REUTERS VJ RAI0340