Swedish Christian groups and the opposition Green Party have called for an inquiry into allegations of bribery in South Africa's multibillion rand arms deal.

They have urged Swedish Prime Minister Goran Persson to launch an official probe into claims that the partly-Swedish consortium BAE/Saab bribed government and ANC officials to secure the contract to sell JAS Gripen fighter jets to SA.

This follows repeated allegations by former ANC MP Andrew Feinstein that the Gripen group gave the ANC $35-million to win the contract. Feinstein is a former member of parliament's standing committee on public accounts. He resigned because of dissatisfaction over the way the committee was handling claims of bribery in the arms deal.

Feinstein repeated the charges about the $35-million donation to the ANC in interviews last week with Swedish radio and television stations.

Anna Akerlund, head of the Swedish Fellowship of Reconciliation; Sven-Bernhard Fast, head of the Christian Council of Sweden and Bo Forsberg, head of development in Diakonia, wrote to Persson last week, calling for an immediate public inquiry into the many accusations of bribery surfacing in the media about the Gripen deal.

"We would also like to draw your attention to new information currently circulating regarding corruption in connection to the South African weapons purchases of 1999," the letter said.

"It is difficult to judge the substance of the information, but we believe that the accusations are so many and so grave as to justify an immediate public inquiry into what has actually taken place - perhaps in the form of a parliamentary commission.

"Information that has come to our attention indicates that:

BAE/Saab have given gifts to groups within and near the governing ANC party, in order to influence them positively in the run up to their decision to buy JAS 39 Gripen. This includes amongst other things monies paid to the ANC itself and the trade union movement.

BAE/Saab have given gifts/bribes to persons with influence in the decision-making process.

BAE/Saab have given monies directly to the ruling ANC party."

Last night, Linden Birns, spokesperson for BAE and Saab, strongly denied the allegations. He said the allegations had been fully investigated by the National Directorate of Public Prosecutions, the public protector and the auditor-general in 2000-2001. Their joint finding that BAE/Saab was guilty of no corruption in SA, had been accepted by parliament.

With acknowledgements to the Foreign Reporter and The Star.