Swedish Christian groups and the country's opposition Green Party have called on Swedish Prime Minister Goran Persson to launch an official inquiry into allegations that the partly-Swedish consortium BAE/Saab bribed government and ANC officials to secure the contract to sell JAS Gripen fighter jets to South Africa.

This follows repeated allegations by ex-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 who resigned because of dissatisfaction at the way the committee was handling allegations of bribery in the arms deal.

Feinstein repeated the charges about the donation to the ANC in interviews last week with Swedish radio.

With acknowledgements to Peter Fabricius and the Cape Times.