Elite South African police -- known as the Scorpions -- are investigating claims the country's deputy president tried to get a bribe from a French defence company involved in an arms deal here, a newspaper report said Friday.

Deputy President Jacob Zuma in 1999 is alleged to have tried to negotiate a 500,000-rand (50,000-dollar/euro) bribe to protect the French company Thomson-CSF during investigations into a scandal-ridden arms deal, the weekly Mail & Guardian said, citing an affidavit filed by Scorpions lead investigator William Downer.

The allegations drew swift denials from Zuma's office and from Thomson-CSF's South African subsidiary African Defense Systems (ADS).

Zuma's spokeswoman Lakela Kaunda, told the paper he "vehemently denied" the allegations.

"He believes the allegations are baseless, mischievous and unfortunate as he has not been involved in any such unlawful activity and was far removed from the arms procurement process," she said.

ADS director in South Africa Pierre Moynot told AFP: "I am completely unaware of any such payments," blaming the report on "local political fights."

Sipho Ngwema, spokesman for the elite investigating unit, said they did not comment on "investigations in progress," adding that the matter would be referred in due course for a decision on whether to prosecute anyone.

Thomson-CSF, now renamed Thales, and its subsidiary ADS were part of a consortium that won a six-billion-rand (about 500-million-dollar) bid to provide the South African navy with four new corvette warships.

Downer's affidavit said Zuma, ADS director and shareholder Schabir Shaik and the then-southern African chairman of Thomson-CSF, Alain Thetard, held a meeting in Durban in March 2000, after which Thetard wrote a letter to his superiors, according to the paper.

Shaik, brother to Defense Department acquisitions chief Shamin Shaik, was summoned in June to answer questions related to the Zuma investigation, the Mail and Guardian reported.

The affidavit provides no documentation that Zuma directly received 500,000 rand but cites Thetard's letter which said: "I had asked SS (Schabir Shaik) to obtain from JZ (Jacob Zuma) a clear confirmation, or failing which an encoded declaration, in order to validate the request by SS at the end of September 1999. Which was done by JZ."

The letter referred to an amount of 500,000 rand per year until the first payment of dividends by ADS.

The affidavit claims that in 1999 Thomson-CSF bought back shares in its South African affiliate from a company owned by Shaik, at a hugely inflated price. The shares sold one day at 1,000 rand, and then one day later at 50,000 rand. The inflated transaction on the second day amounted to 500,000 rand.

"There is thus a striking disparity in the value of the shares in transactions on two successive days. This calls into question whether it is not more properly related to the 500,000 rand bribe," the affidavit said.

At the request of the Scorpions, according to the report, raids were carried out October 9, 2001 on Thomson's offices in France, Turkey, Mauritius and South Africa.

With acknowledgement to AFP.