Durban - Businessman Schabir Shaik's trial has been interrupted while the state awaits a ruling on rebuttal evidence it wishes to introduce.

Lead prosecutor Billy Downer, SC, was asking Shaik about his involvement with the Point development here.

The state alleges Shaik got Deputy President Jacob Zuma to help him after he was sidelined by the Malaysian company Renong, which won the bid for the Point development.

When Downer asked about papers given to the Scorpions by David Wilson, formerly of Renong, Shaik denied having seen one of the letters.

The letter was written under the letterhead "Ministry of Economic Affairs and Tourism Province of KwaZulu-Natal."

It is addressed to the chairman of Renong, Tan Sri Halim Saad, and ostensibly written by Zuma, but not signed. In the letter Zuma asked Saad for a meeting to discuss who the best "local partner" would be to work with on the Point Development.

"It is the first time that I have seen this letter," Shaik said.

After lunch Downer applied to reopen the state case to admit a single document to be used as rebuttal evidence against Shaik.

"It came as a surprise to us when he said he had no knowledge of the letter," Downer said.

He has asked the court for permission to hand in a draft document, which bears "a remarkable similarity" to the letter and which was obtained from a computer seized from Nkobi in 2001.

Downer said the state could prove that Shaik's denial of having seen the letter was false.

Judge Hilary Squires is to rule on the application today.

With acknowledgements to Estelle Ellis and the Cape Times.