Paris - President Thabo Mbeki has refuted allegations that his deputy president Jacob Zuma once tried to solicit bribes from French arms maker Thales to shield it from a corruption probe.

"There is no scandal. There is not anybody, anywhere - in South Africa or anywhere in the world - who can produce one single fact to demonstrate corruption," Mbeki said in an interview with Radio France Internationale (RFI).

"Nobody has said, 'Here are the facts which prove that what Deputy President Zuma has done is corrupt'," he added. "So I know people talk about scandals, but when I say, 'Prove to me the scandal', nobody can," Mbeki told the radio station while on a state visit to France.

South Africa's elite investigating unit, the Scorpions, was probing claims that Zuma tried to solicit 500,000 rand (75,500 dollars, 63,500 euros) a year from Thales, which supplies equipment to the country's armed forces.

In return, Zuma allegedly offered to protect the firm, then known as Thomson-CSF, during an investigation into alleged irregularities surrounding a five-billion-dollar government arms deal in 1999-2000.

In August, South Africa's top prosecutor Bulelani Ngcuka said that prima facie evidence of Zuma's guilt existed, but was not sufficient to convince the justice ministry to bring charges against him.

Zuma has maintained his innocence and has rejected calls from opposition parties to hand in his resignation.

Mbeki defended Zuma, telling RFI: "People who make the accusations need to go and prove it in court – even the South African prosecution authority."

The South African leader added: "We are proceeding from the position that everybody is innocent until they're found guilty.

We have not found Thomson guilty. We have not found the deputy president guilty on this thing. So the facts about this matter will be established in time."

With acknowledgement to the Business Day.