Cape Town - The New National Party would be offered the position of chairman in parliament's key standing committee on public accounts, African National Congress chairperson Mosiuoa Lekota said on Tuesday.

The position was held by Dr Gavin Woods of the Inkatha Freedom Party, who resigned last month citing politicisation of the watchdog committee.

"The ANC will recommend that the committee be chaired by the NNP," he said.

It is a tradition that the committee is chaired by an opposition party member.

Lekota said the appointing of ANC MP Vincent Smith following Woods' resignation had been a "stop gap measure while we reflect on what to do on that critical position".

"I can assure you the ANC will recommend that that committee be chaired by the New National Party. You can therefore forget about all the rumours and you can hold me responsible for this."

The post is in line with the co-operation agreement between the ANC and NNP, signed last year after the NNP pulled out of its alliance with the Democratic Party.

Woods said he had been quite shocked at the news as he was under the impression the IFP had been told they could put someone forward for the position.

"It appears to be a direct contradiction of what the ANC had said to the IFP," he said.

With acknowledgements to Sapa and www.news24.co.za