The South African government is expected this week to give the green light to a major probe into the country's scandal-plagued multibillion dollar arms procurement deal, said a leading parliamentarian on Tuesday.

"Parliament is likely to consent to the investigation and ask the public accounts committee to work as its agent," said an African National Congress parliamentarian, Andrew Feinstein.

Next week, the committee will call a meeting of four leading agencies that have already begun to probe certain aspects of the R43-billion deal to thrash out a coordinated plan of action.

Committee member already has had anonymous death threat "It will certainly be the most comprehensive investigation of its kind ever mounted here," said Feinstein.

The aim is to produce an interim report in January and complete the probe about April or May, he added.

The deal signed last December, involving arms firms in Germany, Italy, Sweden, Britain, France and South Africa, included offset deals supposed to be worth R104-billion, which the government said should generate 65 000 jobs.

Some of the top names in the world arms trade are involved, including Sweden's Saab, Britain's British Aerospace and France's Thomson-CSF.

But allegations of bribery and corruption have surrounded the deal, and a preliminary study by the auditor-general recently called for a forensic audit after finding serious flaws in procedures.

'It is too early to tell if heads will roll because of this (probe)' Gavin Woods, the head of parliament's public accounts committee, already has received an anonymous death threat and other members of the committee have been cautioned to take increased security precautions.

"There has been no pressure so far, but people are not aware of just how deep we have gone already," said  committee member Feinstein. "There are definite strands."

Next week's closed-door co-ordinating meeting will bring together Auditor-General Shauket Fakie, special investigator Judge Willem Heath, Public Protector Selby Baqwa and the office for serious economic offences.

Initial areas of focus will be on sub-contractors in South Africa, flawed procedures, possible exercise by individuals of undue influence on the contract process and the failure of the government to reveal the true costs of the deal at the time.

The investigations cannot at this stage include the foreign prime contractors for the corvettes, submarines, trainer and fighter jets and  helicopters because the investigators have no jurisdiction overseas.

But Feinstein said that if it became clear during the course of the probe that foreign bank accounts or assets were involved, then the director of  public prosecutions and the asset forfeiture unit would be called in.

"Their remit applies overseas as well," Feinstein said. "It is too early to tell if any heads will roll because of this. It could just turn out to be a few procedural errors or it could be major." - Sapa

With acknowledgement to Jeremy Lovell and Independent Online.