S Africa's Mbeki says ANC could keep him as leader

JOHANNESBURG, June 30 (Reuters) South African President Thabo Mbeki said today it would be fine if the ruling African National Congress asked him to stay on as its leader after he leaves national office in 2009.

Mbeki, speaking after the close of a party policy conference, said the ANC would collectively decide its slate of candidates for party elections in December and that, if asked, he would be available.

''That's a matter that we would discuss among the leadership. I don't think it's an individual decision,'' Mbeki told SABC in an interview.

''If the leadership generally said 'look, we believe the interests of the ANC and the country would be best served if we had somebody else', that's fine.

''But if they said 'no, you better stay for whatever good reason', that would be fine. You couldn't act in a way that disrespected such a view.'' Mbeki's comments were the clearest indication yet that he might stand for a third term as leader of the ruling party even after he steps down as the country's president in 2009.

This week's conference -- a preview of the national congress in December -- yesterday approved a compromise to keep current rules on electing its leaders, rejecting proposals which would have barred an Mbeki candidacy.

However, delegates did say it would be preferable if the party and national presidencies were held by the same person.

OPPOSITION TO MBEKI The prospect that Mbeki might keep power in the ANC is opposed by many in the powerful trade union movement and Communist Party, which oppose his centrist policies and accuse him of failing the poor.

They are seen as backing Mbeki's former deputy Jacob Zuma, sacked as national vice-president in a corruption scandal in 2005 but still deputy chair of the ANC.

The four-day conference steered clear of public debate over internal ANC splits and Mbeki today hailed the ANC's 1,500 delegates for disproving analysts' predictions of ''deep divisions and bitter conflicts'' in South Africa's ruling party.

''Since their ill-intentioned predictions failed to materialise, I am certain that these professional critics are already at work to invent new negatives to give life to their negative campaigns,'' Mbeki said in his closing address.

Political analysts say the policy conference appeared simply to have postponed one of the biggest leadership races in the liberation movement's 95-year old history.

''There is relief now because the peace has been maintained, even if the battle has been postponed... (but) the succession battle may heat up again,'' said Susan Booysens, a political scientist at the University of the Witwatersrand.

The ANC, which came to power in South Africa's first all-race elections under anti-apartheid hero Nelson Mandela, dominates South African politics and its presidential candidate is virtually assured of becoming leader of the country.

The policy conference was officially aimed at debating the ANC's economic and political strategies, with emphasis on efforts to fight widespread poverty.

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