A spokesman for Bulelani Ngcuka, the country's national director of public prosecutions, said Monday he would claim an unspecified amount of damages from former minister Mac Maharaj, as well as from City Press newspaper.

The newspaper report said on Sunday the now ruling Africa National Congress (ANC) in exile investigated Ngcuka in the late 1980s to establish whether he was an apartheid spy.

On Monday, Maharaj also spoke of the allegations, saying he had seen an intelligence report in which Ngcuka was named as "Agent RS452" who worked for the white nationalist government.

Speaking on SABC public radio, Ngcuka denied the claims: "I have never been an agent, I never was."

"I served my country and my organisation honestly. Nobody in the (ruling) African National Congress has ever asked me or confronted me with those things," he said.

Ngcuka's threat to go to court is the latest in an ugly row between himself, Maharaj, who served in former president Nelson Mandela's cabinet, South African Deputy President Jacob Zuma and his financial adviser, Schabir Shaik.

All three men have been the subject of investigations by Ngcuka's elite investigation unit, called the Scorpions.

Ngcuka announced last month that evidence existed Zuma had solicited a bribe in a multi-billion dollar South African arms procurement deal, but that there was not enough evidence to convince the justice ministry to lay charges.

Zuma has countersued in court, denying any wrongdoing.

"I have always maintained that I am innocent of the charges in the draft charge sheet (before court). I have never solicited or accepted a bribe or acted corruptly. I never will," Zuma said in his affidavit.

Ngcuka said he had doubts why the issue had now been raised: "I have been in this job for five years. At no stage has that issue been raised until now."

"I'm asking myself the question whether it's not the people whom I am now investigating, who are behind these things."

Several South African analysts have recently speculated whether the row between Ngcuka and Zuma could be linked to a potential power struggle inside the ANC, with party heavyweights vying for position ahead of national elections scheduled for 2004.

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